Mosiah 2:41

...I would desire that ye should consider on the 

blessed and happy state of those that

keep the commandments of God.  For behold, 

they are blessed in all things,

both temporal and spiritual; 

and if they hold out faithful to the end

they are received into heaven,

that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of 

never-ending happiness...

A new favorite.

How 'bout it?!

Any chance I could be a dog lady instead of a cat lady?

Pretty PLEASE?!

I can't get enough of these cute goldendoodles!  One day....

Images via Google

Stereotypes: Gym

Check out this video.... you won't be sorry.  I've seen almost all of these at the gym (and I'm sure I'd see the other if I actually went into the guys locker room), oh man.

8 Virtues for a Dominant Life

Look at this article!!

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2014/01/the-best-time-to-plant-a-tree?cid=HPWE010114311&im=true&lang=eng

It's perfect for the New Year, for resolutions to be better and it's just an overall feel good message!  One of my favorite quotes is:

"Even though we might fall short of our finish line, 

just continuing the journey will make us greater than we were before."

Aahh so great :]

Normally I would set aside a list of goals that I'd like to accomplish this year, but when I reflected on my poor success rate in the past and the fact I was having a hard time coming up with goals (other than play bingo at a retirement home), I decided to take a different approach this year.  Going along with my theme for 2014, I have come up with 8 virtues that I want to live by this year.  I am copying Benjamin Franklin a bit, but instead of keeping them for life, I'm going to work on them for a year and then make adjustments. [If you're interested, this guy gives a good explanation of Benji's 13 virtues] 

Hailey's 8 Virtues for a Dominant Life: 

1. Perspective - To avoid getting caught up in the irrational and unimportant by remembering to refocus on the bigger picture.
2. Humor - Live, Laugh, Love. Find the good in the world. 
3. Curiosity - Always progress, find new passions and continue learning. 
4. Sincerity - 100% in everything I say and do.
5. Honesty - To be realistic with myself and honest in my intentions. Separate between wants and needs.
6. Confidence - Unwavering belief in myself, others and God
7. Service - To focus on the needs of others and to ACT. 
8. Tenacity - To be strong spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally

I'm really excited to give this a try. I have a feeling this year is going to bring a lot of changes and I want one of those to be that I have changed into an outstanding human being.  

"You don't need to wait for permission to become the person you were designed to be."

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Bring it on 2014

This year my theme is: 

-Annette Funicello

I'm hoping it will remind me to keep life in perspective.  To help me avoid getting so caught up in the daily worries and help me remember how fantastically wonderful my life is.  I'm going to work on being better at going with the flow; to relax a bit.  Life holds a lot of amazing adventures just waiting for us to find and I don't want to miss a single one! I'm still working on my list of resolutions but I can't wait to get started!  The New Year is one of my favorites because we have a fresh start, endless possibilities and a renewed vigor for life.  It's contagious! 

Who knows where 2014 will take me, but I have a feeling this year will be a good one.  :]  

Let's do this!

Things Aren't Always As They Appear....

I've thought about this a lot lately.  It's something that I'm having a hard time grasping.  However, I've come to the conclusion that our identity and what things we define ourselves with or put out to the world CHANGES.

I've always liked that I knew who I was:
-Child of God, athletic, blonde haired, dumb humored, sarcastic, competitive, dominant human being. ;]

I've always had confidence in who I was and was excited to share pieces of me with ANYONE who was interested.

Interestingly enough, with all this growing up and stuff, I've changed.  Not sure how I didn't realize it, or why I feel in denial about it.

Most of the time I surround myself with people I've known for quite some time, so they know the whole Hailey.  However with dating or meeting new friends, the only things these new people know about Hailey are the things I tell them/show them about myself. Sometimes I catch myself trying to explain or incorporate the old me and I have to stop and think if that is who I am currently.

An easy example: I don't really use the word DOMINATION as much as I used to.   It hardly comes up in my conversations anymore, where as in high school (and even sometime after high school.....) I was OBSESSED with the word domination.  Why? No particular reason really.  I liked building off the implied confidence that carried with the word DOMINATION.  I tried to dominate everything in my life, and it certainly helped grow my bad habit of trash talking.... #oops.

So when I go bowling and I am asked what I want my bowling name to be, and I automatically type DOMINATION, people laugh in the "not entirely sure what that's about, but it's kinda funny, but you're dead serious so I don't really know how to react so I'll keep chuckling" sort of way, but have no idea the history and feelings I have behind that word.  Part of me feels sad that these new people won't know that side of me, because I sure did have a lot of fun with it.   However, I've changed and in this instance, grown up.

I understand this is a small, insignificant change in my life which may not be the best example to illustrate my feelings toward these new-founded life/personality changes.  However, for the most part I am really happy with how I've changed and I'm excited for some future changes.

#lawyerjokes

I received this email from a client who thought I might enjoy it.  Aaaahhh she knows me far too well. [Heads up, it's a little long, but soooo worth it!]

Part of rebuilding New Orleans caused residents often to be challenged with the task of tracing home titles back potentially hundredsof years. With a community rich with history stretching back over twocenturies, houses have been passed along through generations of family,sometimes making it quite difficult to establish ownership.Here's a great letter an attorney wrote to the FHA on behalf of a client:

A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to a parcel of property being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply: 

(Actual reply from FHA): 

"Upon review of your letter adjoining your client's loan application, we note the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the ablemanner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin."
 

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

(Actual response):

"Your letter regarding title in Case No.189156 has been received. I note you wish to have title extended further than the 206 years covered by the present application. I was unaware any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application. For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France , which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. 

The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella. The good Queen Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus 's expedition. Now the Pope, as I'm sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ,the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. 

Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume God also made the part of the world called Louisiana. God; therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it, and the FHA. I hope you find God's original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our loan?"  The loan was immediately approved.

Boom. Roasted. Gotta love lawyer humor combined with stupid oversight.

Well, He's Off!

There was so much that built up to this day, but it never really seems real until the moment it's actually happening.  This morning we dropped Parker off at the airport and hugged him for the last time for the next two years.

Parker is heading to the MTC in Preston, England so this drop off at the airport was a lot different than Jordan's was at the Provo MTC.  We had time to sit and wait before Parker had to go through security which was good, but prolonging the inevitable didn't help my turning stomach. Once Parker left us and walked through security, I lost it.  My name is Hailey and I am a cry baby.

The thing is that we have a small family.  There are only three of us and then my parents.  When one person is gone it leaves a huge hole. (I'm sure this is the same for a big family too) Not only that, but PK is the baby of the family.  He's the youngest, so thankfully that means this is the last time we have to do this, but it's still so sad knowing that it'll be another 2 years until I get to see him again.

I am going to miss Parker so much.  He's one of my best friends and we've really had a chance to get really close these past few years while Jordan was gone.  With all that aside, Parker is going to DOMINATE his mission! Parker is a great kid and I'm excited to hear how he changes and grows throughout his mission.

Good luck bro.  See you in two.

Random Musings

I was going through my old draft blog posts and feeling grateful I didn't press publish on a lot of them.  Mostly they were heat of the moment posts which in these instances, were better left unsaid.  I had a rant on my pet peeve of mean and nasty comments on the Internet (still a pet peeve), a post titled "Look who's legit!" with nothing written..... and a list of things I would never buy at a yard sale (including but not limited to: a hot tub, used socks, deodorant and hats).  Like I said, good thing they were left as drafts. :]

Since I rarely post anymore, I wanted to do a weekly domination update, so here it goes!

•  Karlie had her babies!!  Two adorable baby girls that have stolen my heart. I feel such an overwhelming love for them.  I feel like I'm their Auntie and I plan to brain wash them to believe that!  It is so strange but ultimately so awesome to watch the first one of the group have babies.  My little friend is all grown up!  I couldn't be more excited for their little family and I'm glad I can watch the twins grow up for a little while before Kar & Jake leave for med school. 

• I have..... an online shopping addiction.  Most people have their little guilty pleasures or addictions (Diet Coke, Hershey Kisses, real-life kisses, crafting, thrifting, sleeping, Parks & Recreation, etc) and mine just happens to be online shopping. I'm so lucky to have found my addiction so early on in life! ;) I LOVE Jane.com right now, I get so many awesome things on there for such good prices! 
• I got a record in bowling recently! A whopping 76.  You read that right, 76.  I know... believe me, I know what you're thinking.  I am ashamed.  To make myself feel better I played Wii bowling the next night and got a 171.

• I went out on a limb and got new glasses.

• We've been rock climbing like crazy which means I'm getting muscles in places I didn't expect and that I get to see this handsome man and his awesome parents every week! 

• We went to the chalk festival which blew my mind!  These people are sooo talented!  I think it would be awesome to enter one year just to do it, I LOVE chalk. 

• I have made it my mission to introduce everyone to Waffle Love.  Hands down the best waffles I've EVER eaten.  They hooked me in and now I'm a stalker of their traveling waffle truck. 

• I started sewing my quilt and it is coming along sooooo great! It's been a lot of work, but I love doing it.  I think quilts might be my "thing" because they are usually just sewing straight lines, fairly easy and so stinkin' cute!  Pictures to come.... can't ruin the surprise! 
• I found "my spot."  Okay there are actually two of them, but one is for sitting and taking in how beautiful this wonderful State is and the other is a tucked away trail I found close to my house. I've always wanted a "spot" and now I've found two!  The other one I didn't get pictures of, but I will eventually! 

• PK has his farewell on Sunday and then leaves for London a week and a half after that.  I don't want him to go...we just got Jordan back!  I'm really going to miss that guy, but I'm so excited for him because I know he's going to dominate. 
• We had family pictures last weekend and they turned out soooo good! Man I love family. 
• I ride the train to and from work as often as I can.  I LOVE it.  It is not financially feasible, nor does it take less time than driving (it's actually more of a pain to get places outside of the station), but I feel so relaxed and wonderful when I ride the train.  All these years driving quite a distance to work I've developed a small case of road rage and I end up at work feeling frazzled. When I ride the train I get to work refreshed, happy to be around people and ready to get the day started.  I HIGHLY recommend it. 

Well, that's all for now, see you in another 4 months when I blog again! ;) 

Life is good.

Speak Up Already!

I've come to the conclusion that people who do not make a noise or saying anything when a clothing store worker has knocked on their dressing room to see if it's free, causing the door to be opened on an embarrassing, half-dressed situation, are those who turn out to be flashers.

What other logical reason could there be?  They must enjoy getting caught with their pants down literally or something because when I'm changing in a fitting room and I hear the knock on the door and the "Is anybody in here?" I instantly panic and blurt out some noise to stop them from coming in.  On a few rare occasions I'm able to form them into words like "STOP" or "I'm in here!" but usually I'm just so worried about being walked in on that I figure any noise is better than nothing.  And, to this day I have yet to be walked in on at a public dressing room.

I've walked in on plenty of people though, and it's uncomfortable, and would have never happen if people would just answer the warnings.

Side note: 

I almost googled videos for dressing room pranks

but luckily my brain kicked in before I did. 

That could have been bad....