My Wonderful Friend Megan returns home soon and I am SO EXCITED!

My best friend Megan is on a mission for the Latter-Day Saint Church in San Diego, CA. She is currently serving at the Mormon Battalion Centre there and returns home at the beginning of March. She has been away for almost a year and a half and I am getting anxious for her arrival home. I would never tell her I am excited for her to come home because I don’t want her to think about coming home and not finishing out strong on her mission, so it is my little secret BUT I will tell you all because I don’t think right now she is able to read this! We have been good friends for about 10 years now and I hope it continues for a lot more. Below is a picture of her and I at EFY a few years ago (it is a church camp, for those who don’t know what it is, it is where youth get to meet with other youth of the LDS faith from around the world and stay at a college campus for a week. They get to participate in games, activities and have lessons that help build testimonies and help them learn more about the gospel.)

(Left to right is Megan and I at EFY at Montana State University, summer of 2006.)

Here is her blog of her being on her mission if you're interested in following:
http://missionarymegan.blogspot.com/

Happy Happy 2011!

Happy 2011 to everyone!!! Hope this next year is better than the last and the last year was pretty darn good (but I am pretty sure it will be ;))! I am excited to see what the next year has in store for me. I hope it brings many more big improvements like this year I made some huge improvements, I mean I WENT TO SCHOOL and LIVED ON MY OWN! That is HUGE for me and I am really happy it has gotten back to that point. Well, Happy New Years again and it's a whole New Year for many more posts to come of stuff that we can only wait and see what they are going to be about!

Something that made me very sad while recovering from my stroke was the fact that I didn’t have a reason to dress up anymore. I love dressing up and putting together outfits with all my clothes but when I had a stroke it took way too much energy to get ready for the day and it was pointless also because I never went anywhere! Now, I mean I can’t wear some things (like high heels because of balance) but that’s okay, I make do with what I can and now I have energy and places to go so I am back buying clothes and putting together outfits that now I have reason’s to wear! I LOVE to shop, so I try to make my money go as long as it can, so I can buy more clothes and that is why I LOVE Forever 21. It is pretty cheap and their stuff is the styles that are in at the moment. Another fav of mine is Target, they always have really cute stuff and they always have some waaaayyy cute stuff in their sale sections. The lace jacket I am wearing, it’s from Target and was in their sale section and I LOVE IT. Also, that little black scarf I am wearing is from Target. It is so cute and always helps bring more to an outfit, I don’t know if you can tell but it has sequins on it and that I really feel brings a little sparkle to the outfit. Anyway, everything I am wearing is from all over, kind of random but that is what I like.

Also, I know my make-up can be a bit extreme but I like to stand out and have what I am wearing say to people that I don’t care if I have a disability, I am still confident to wear what I want. Another favorite of mine is wearing bright eye-shadow. I have hot pink on and it is from M.A.C. Cosmetics, my favorite place to buy eye-shadow. It stay’s on and never flakes all over the place.

Today is Tuesday, December 21st. Christmas is this Saturday and I LOVE IT! I love this time of year! I love all the lights and decorations, parties, family get-together’s, and just the spirit in the air. And, then a month after Christmas is the 2 year mark of when I had my accident! It’s amazing how time has flown!! The Fall Semester for BYU-Idaho is now over and that is SO CRAZY! I remember like it was yesterday and thinking it would never start and now IT’S OVER! I mean, part’s of school seemed like forever while I was in it, but now that it is over, seems like time had flown! Now, I just wish we could skip the winter and then it be spring time haha but I know I need to be patient. I decided that I won’t survive going to class everyday in the snow and, then when it becomes ice, that scares me! I was thinking maybe I’ll take online classes and live in the same apartment up in Idaho but I realized I might go insane, since I can’t really go on my own any places, I would always feel trapped. I feel like going up to school this last semester was so important and it helped me a lot in so many things! It helped me to become independent again and it pushed me to become closer to my old self again. It helped me to become social again, helped me to learn how to take care of myself again, I learned how I can live on my own again, and so much more.

During the Semester I had been working with Sister Dienhart, a teacher at BYU-Idaho who teaches ballet and had a stroke herself. I mentioned I was planning on working with her in an earlier post, I had been going to a beginning ballet class of hers and then we had worked one-on-one once a week also, to get back my ability to dance again. I had to hold onto the bar when the class would move to the middle of the dance floor and still when the semester ended but I improved in being able to control my foot a lot moore and my energy improved by the end of the Semester. She was an angel to work with and is an inspiration to me that I will be able to dance again!

My room-mates and I before going to church. From left to Right there is me, Amanda Ellis, Alex Grooms, Laura Hargiss, and Stephanie Cumsille.

Last Friday I came home after the Semester had ended at byu-i and on Sunday my family and I went to see the lights at Temple Square, they were BEAUTIFUL!

Progress Up-date

I forgot on my last post to update on my progress so here is an update if anyone was wondering. I am doing really good but still progressing. I still have trouble with my balance, I still fall over at times, I walk in zig-zag patterns because when there is a bump in the road, or a slant in the side-walk my legs will react to little gravity pulls and so I just have to go where my legs take me. My right leg will start shaking when I am standing on it too long. Sister Dienhart is still working very hard with me in and out of the dance class, still when the class goes to the middle of the floor to practice ballet moves, I have to go over to the bar and hold on because of balance problems. My progress is still coming, there are very little improvements I see daily but so small that they are sometimes very hard to notice. All is good though and there it is! The end. J

K, I know I haven’t updated my blog for some time. Going back to school and having to think again is something I am trying to learn how to do again, so doing the blog hasn’t been a main priority of mine lately. My progress is still coming along though, very slowly but coming along. Here is a few picture's from school, I am sorry that I don't have a lot, I will try and take more and then post them!

Here is a picture of my FHE group after an activity:

For my friend Kelsie’s color photography class, she took pictures of me for one of her assignments. Here is a few of the pictures she took:

The Lovely Cabin

In the summer my family and I take lots of trips to our cabin. We spent memorial weekend at our cabin because of the 3 day weekend and that was the first time my family and I went up for a trip this year. My dad built the cabin when my sister’s and I were little and we spent almost every weekend up there at that time so now my sister’s and I are a little sick of it but we still love it because so many memories were made there. Here are some pictures of the trip my family and I took. Also, I probably won’t be posting very many posts for awhile. I am trying to get my balance really good before I go back to school so I am going to be working hard on my balance until then.