A month of Thanksgiving-Day 4

Today I am thankful for Diet Coke...I wouldn't have survived this hellish day with out it.

A month of Thanksgiving-Day 3

I seriously have the best friends. They are always so supportive, no matter what. They want the best for me and will do anything they can to help me. I hope that I am at least half the friend to them that they are to me.

A month of Thanksgiving-Day 2

Bless Starbucks Carmel Apple Spice. It's perfect for cold fall mornings. I pretend I don't know how many calories are in my typical grande.

A month of Thanksgiving-Day 1

I am thankful for answered prayers. I have been trying to make some life decisions for awhile now, and today I received my answer. I love the feeling of joy that overcame me, the excitement for the future, and my restored faith that prayers are answered.

I survived....barely

Every year my work has an annual convention for our distributors. It always takes place in the fall, and is always a lot of work. This blessed event took place last week. It was fun but busy. I am happy to report that I survived yet another year. This year we had a pajama dance party where the B52's performed. Yes, I did get to meet them (it was very brief). Our guest speaker was Chris Gardner, the guy from the movie Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith played him). He was probably the best motivational speaker I have ever heard. We launched our charity and were able to raise several thousand dollars and partnered with Operation Smile. I could have done with out the 5 am 5K, but it was for charity. I have committed to run it next year. All in all it was a very successful event with 10,000 very happy distributors, and many tired employees.

At the beginning of last week (before the start of convention) I started getting sick. I was sick the whole week (during convention). Finally on Monday after sleeping the whole day I went to the doctor. Apparently I have a sinus infection that has settled in my chest and into the bones in my sinus cavity. I have been out of work all week, and it has sucked. I have become great friends with my bed, since I have no energy to do anything but lay there. I will be returning to work tomorrow. Wish me luck.

As soon as I find my barrings, I will write a real post. Thanks for being so understanding and great.

Mucisimas Gracias

The lovely ladies at BonBon Rose gave me this little lovely award. I want to now give the award to (drum roll everyone):
Shannon H
Kelsey H
Miriam N (private)

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. This is a really busy time for my work. I will be able to breathe again and blog (hopefully, knock on wood) soon.

It started with apples

I have an apple tree in my backyard. This apple tree has produced a massive amount of apples. I started to feel bad because they were going to waste. I didn't want them to just rot; I decided to bottle some apple pie filling and apple butter. I went to the store and bought the mason jars. While there I decided that I could also do a batch of strawberry jam. (I mean come on, who doesn't love homemade strawberry jam on toast?) On my way to the produce section I saw that raspberries were on sale. I bought two flats and added raspberry jam to my rapidly growing list. Then on the drive home I saw a fruit stand and thought that I might as well add peaches too. I figured I was going to be in the middle of canning hell anyway, why not add something else.

After 3 trips to the store, 25 lbs of sugar, 8 hours on my feet, ridiculously sore hands from peeling apple, I was done. The finished product was 16 quarts of apple pie filling, 10 quarts of peaches, 18 half pints of raspberry jam, 20 half pints of strawberry jam, 18 half pints of apple butter and 5 half pints of pepper jelly. Yeah, somewhere along the way I added pepper jelly.


You would think that I would be sick of canning, but I am not. Next week on the agenda is tomatoes and salsa plus a few other things. Green beans, chili, pumpkin pie filling, and maybe some potatoes. I am working on getting my food storage ready. I figured this is a good start.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I will also be posting my thoughts on General Conference a little later.

Dreams Come True

"Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true."
-Unknown

May all your dreams and wishes come true today

The makings of a perfect weekend

Saturday
Sleeping in until 9 am - Check
Cleaning the house - Check
Helped Watched my mom make sweet rolls - Check
Go to the U of U game with the lovely Reagan - Check
The Utes won - Double check
(maybe I should mention that BYU won too, this weekend Utah football was way better than last weekend. Thank heavens)

Sunday
Blessing for my cousins baby - Check
Family luncheon, mingling with people I hadn't seen for so long - Check
Visiting teaching - Check, check
Season premier of Desperate Housewives - Check

It was a fantastic weekend!

Need a little inspiration?

If so read this article, click here. It is about an 18 year old, deaf and blind girl. I wish that I had half of her courage.

I really wish

That this (one of the many outfits that Lady GaGa wore to the VMA's) was available in my size.


For Halloween I was hoping to dress up as Jane Jetson, in some sort of futuristic lingerie. I guess I will have to start the search for the perfect costume again.

P.S. I am totally kidding, I would NEVER wear this.

An accomplishment

I went to Target this weekend, and didn't
buy anything.I am so proud of myself!

Happy Monday

My Little Hero

(My nephew, and his very best friend, Goose)

So this last weekend I had my family over for a BBQ. During this, a little disagreement happened between my brother and I (it was nothing big, I overreacted, and its fine now). My brother got up said something (I don't even remember what it was) and left the table. I put my head in my hands because I felt bad. My nephew, who is 4 then comes up to me and started rubbing my arm. He said "don't worry Gefney, it will be ok. Don't worry". He then goes to the family room where my brother was and I hear this conversation.

Nephew: You don't talk to her like that
Brother: She was the one being mean to me
Nephew: I don't care, you don't talk to her like that.

I thought it was so cute that he felt the need to protect me. Who needs a man, when you have a super cute nephew?

Fight Like a Girl

I love this song, the chorus is especially empowering. I hope that we all can fight like girls.

"Hold your head high.
Don't ever let 'em define
The light in your eyes.
Love yourself, give them Hell.
You can take on this world.
You just stand and be strong
And then fight
Like a girl."

Here's your sign

Every summer in Utah there is a massive amount of road construction. This is not something new. It's one of those things that you can count on. The sun rises in the east, and there will be road construction in Utah, you can set your watch to it.

One day last week, I was driving down a fairly busy road. This road had fallen victim to the evil ways of UDOT and was under some construction. It was in the middle of the day and there were not many cars out. We (my friend was with me) were stopped at a red light. When the light turned green no one moved. We got over to the next lane and saw the problem. A Honda Odyssey had ran over a road construction sign. This was not a little sign, it was one of the big diamond shaped signs. She was not able to move her vehicle without causing more damage. The lady driving the car next to her thought that this would be a good time to be a good samaritan. She got out of her car and tried to pull the huge sign out from under the Odyssey.

My questions are: How did the driver of the van miss this sign? Why did the good samaritan think she could pull it out by her self?

I hope you all have a wonderful, long holiday weekend. Watch out for those road construction sign, they sneak right up on you.

Can you feel the love?

Little Ms. Blogger gave this lovely award to me. The Love Ya award. Little Ms. Bloggers blog is fun, creative, and full of insight. If you haven't read her blog yet, do so now.

To do my duty to the blogging world I am moving this along.

Here are the rules:

"This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

My 8 are:

Reagan at Jonatheagan
Dani at The Kennedy Kartel
Kristin at BonBon Rose
Jessica at La Estilo
Kristina at Pulsipher Predilections
Andree at The Close Family
Aubrie at The Adventures of El Guapo & his Beautiful Girl
Allison at A Little Bit of Everything

I will be back soon with a real post, I promise.

Love ya,

I am not dead

I will be back soon....

For your viewing pleasure

After much deliberation, I have finalized my 'Hot Babe Trifecta'. I know you are all so excited! Here they are in no particular order:

Eric Bana

Oh King Henry!

Gerard Butler

Did you see 300? Enough said.

Chris Pine

He can be my captain any day!

There is one honorable mention. This honorable mention may at any time turn this trifecta into a fourfecta.

James Marsden

He was so cute in 27 dresses.

Sunday Drive

Sorry about my little pity party the other day. I am trying to deal with it the best I can. Thanks for all the kind comments.
This last Sunday after church I went for a drive through the Alpine Loop. It was absolutely beautiful. I live in such a beautiful place, I feel bad that I take it for granted. It was a nice drive to clear my head and enjoy mother nature. I didn't take very many pictures so I will have to go back and take some more.

Smile through the tears

**This is a post in which I get personal and actually talk about some stuff.
Please don't judge and try to be understanding**

This last year has been extremely hard for me. I have tried to deal with it the best that I can, but I can't help but feel that even my best is not good enough. I try my best to keep a smile on my face and keep going. I have suffered from depression before in my life and I have tried really hard to not let myself get that way again. This is something that is easier said than done.

Many of you know that I was suppose to get married this year. I dated this guy for about a year before I finally had enough. This guy would tell me things about how fat I had gotten. That he didn't want me to meet his family because of my weight. After I confided in him some things from my past he told me that he loved me but no one else ever would. That I was boring, but I could change that if I really wanted to. There are many many other things but I am trying not to think about them.

I have realized that these things have affected me more than I let on. When I go out with friends I feel self conscience and I compare myself to them. Consequently I tend to not go out very often. I have created a safe cocoon in my house with my mom. I have enjoyed this time very much as there has not been much pressure to be happy, or be someone I am not. I have been able to strengthen my friendship with my mom, which has been really good for us. But it hasn't helped me move on at all.

I went on a date with someone a couple of weeks ago and while I had fun. I couldn't help but worry about things like: What if I am too fat to date him? What if I am too boring? All of my insecurities were there in the back of my mind. As much as I try I can't help but wonder what other people think of me. I can't help but worry about every little thing. I am so afraid of making a mistake that I don't take any risks.

I have let a big part of my personality die this summer. I have some good friends that are understanding and are there for me. But I have pushed them away and now I feel as though I am left alone to fight this fight. I don't know how to get out of this slump. I don't know how to find myself again. I feel like I am going to have recreate who I am. Its a very scary and daunting task ahead of me. I need to let go of the hurtful things that were told to me over and over again. I need to learn to understand that he was taking my insecurities and using them against me. I need to get over them and not let it effect every decision I make. It has been 4 months. I need to learn to understand that every disappointment I feel in my life is not related. These disappointments are not life shattering and I will be able to get through this.

I have made some goals to help me get over this. I need new hobbies, I need to meet new people. I need to feel like I have something to offer people. That my opinions matter. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Sorry about venting I just have been really down this weekend and I felt that maybe if I said it out loud (or typed it) it would make it easier to deal with. If it is out and in the open then I can't hide behind it anymore. One day I hope to be able to smile without being on the verge of tears, I hope that day is soon.

I hope you all have a very happy day!

I dont understand this

There are these fruit stands all over here (I am sure they are everywhere). They will let you pick a melon, and then they will cut it open and let you have a piece of it. Then you pick another one to buy. I don't understand why they let you taste one melon when obviously you wont buy that one. There is no guarantee that the melon you buy will taste like the melon you sampled. I wonder if you have a craving for a piece of melon you can just go and "sample" a piece and decide not to buy one. Maybe tomorrow I will make it my quest to find out.

Have a fabulous weekend, bloggers!

It finally happened

When Kate Gosselin said that everyone wants her reverse mullet haircut, she was kind of right. At least one unlucky soul is now sporting her haircut.
Seriously Heather...All that money from Sir Paul and you can't even get a decent hair cut. What is this world coming to?

Current Obsession

(I have this in Amber, which is the 3rd from the left)

I bought some of this while I was in Arizona. (We dont have a Sephora here) I love love love it! It gives you more full and voluptuous lips, but it doesn't sting and hurt like some of the other lip plumping products out there. Give it a try you wont be disappointed, unless you already have full lips...in that case I hate you...in the kindest way possible of course.

Summer lovin

This summer I have fallen in love with my trampoline...It's not weird that I am 26 and jump on the trampoline everyday for about 30 min, right.

P.S. Sorry I have been MIA. I have been super busy, and then my hard drive crashed. That was a sad day. :(

You're kidding right...

I took my boss's car to be washed this afternoon. It was taking forever, finally I asked about it. Turns out that the brilliant kids washing the car locked the keys inside. Were they not going to tell me? Don't worry they got it open, with a slim jim.... It's really quite comical and if it was going to happen to anyone, it would be me!

Hope your Monday has been great!