Patriots Day.. 

A significant day in our Country's history that we hold in remembrance of the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  A day to honor all the soldiers that had a grand vision of unity, and who fought 

selflessly for our nation's independence on April 19th, 1775.  

A day of celebration.

Today.. 

A day of shock, horror, and pain for the people of Boston, Massachusetts, 

and for all the citizens of The United State of America.  

Another tragedy has struck our nation, and another straw of fear has pierced through my heart.  Each time I hear of innocent lives lost in a horrific act of violence, I feel more like I am in a poorly written movie, than in real life.  This can't possibly be real life.  No human being could possibly be so sick to want to deliberately take the life of an 8 year old boy.  

My heart aches.

My heart aches for the families who woke up this morning in celebration, 

and who have now suffered one of life's greatest tribulations, the loss of a loved one.  

Life is so fragile.    

My heart aches for the victims whose lives are hanging by a thread in critical condition, and for their families who watch helplessly.  

My heart aches for the witnesses whose minds are now haunted with the memories, 

and for all the people of our country who now have one more straw of fear to feel.  

My heart aches in prayer today... 

Patriot's Day.

This is one of the hardest situations to find optimism in, I think.  There are definitely many more feelings and thoughts that come to mind before gratitude and peace during a time like this, but those feelings are always there, just waiting to be brought into the light.  

This was my favorite thing I saw today, thank you Christopher Cooley for sharing.  

Even though our nation has it's faults, we are United when it counts, 

and we will always. 

always 

turn to prayer.

Earlier this week I found myself lying on the couch, just thinking.  

Not even looking at Instagram or anything, just thinking.  

It was quite refreshing.  

Lately I have been feeling like my self-esteem is not quite up to par.  A lot of guilt and embarrassment, and pretty low confidence.  I used to judge the people who'd take a picture of themselves while they were stopped at a stoplight and post it on Instagram just for fun, and last week I actually felt envious of their confidence.  And somehow that lead me here, to my blog.  

I want to blog more, which meant that I had to do a little revamp.  I wanted to choose a new name that was unique but still had meaning.  So I started with something that I needed more of,

 optimism.  

The thesaurus gave me all kinds of synonyms, but sanguine stood out to me simply because I had never heard it before.  The example it gave was 'a sanguine disposition' which inevitably made me think of Marry Poppins.  The synonyms for disposition listed character, complexion, composition, and then I read 

cup of tea 

and angels sang.  

An optimistic disposition...practically perfect in every way.  

That's how I knew I'd found my new title, for my new blog, 

that I am going to write on more than once a year.  

I found this while working on the revamp, and forgot how much I enjoyed this little collage.  I made it for a class a while back.  The project had something to do with 
keeping our end goals in mind...
apparently it wasn't a very strong lesson 
but at least I got this cute little thing out of it.

a new depth of love

It has been FOREVER since I have written on this blog, and I feel like the customary thing to do would be to write a huge long post about everything that has happened since July 2011, but that doesn't sound as fun as just jumping right in and leaving ya'll wondering...

The New Year is among us, and with that usually comes evaluation of life and habits, and the reformation of our ways.  It's a neat thing that we get a free fresh start every January, even though the date is merely a number with no real meaning.  Thank you to whom ever decided that that was tradition.  

2013 brought us exactly that. Change.  Our lives were changed by a deep and painful trial.  This picture was taken on January 16th, 2013, my 3rd wedding anniversary, and it symbolizes a new depth of love.  I love Adam more than my own mind can even comprehend, and this day exponentially multiplied that love.  It is like when a national tragedy brings more unity than ever.  Hard things make the good things better.  Looking back a few weeks, it actually feels like a dream.  But it's not, it's real life.  It is the most real that life ever feels, I think.  Because that is why we are here right.  To be tested, and tried.  To learn, and relearn, and grow, and fall.  I have learned so much, and for that I am truly grateful.  I have learned how fragile life is, and how we make choices and guide our lives in the direction that we want, but we do not have the final say.  Life is just going to go how it is going to go, and really we just get to choose how we feel about it.  A few weeks ago I felt such sorrow, and today feel the purest joy.  

A miscarriage brought us from the greatest joy we had felt in our lives, we were going to bring a new life to this world, to a terrible heartache with no heartbeat.  It made us stop our busy lives, and fall to our knees.  It made us cry heavy tears together.  I will never. ever. forget that.  It made our little Jet lay belly up in Adam's arms for a half an hour just loving and loving us.  It made our amazing family and friends feel closer than ever.  It made total strangers feel so genuine and kind like they weren't strangers at al.  It broke our hearts.  

Luckily, our human hearts can heal if we let them.  Usually stronger than they started.  Mine did.  My heart is stronger than it was a month ago.  And my love for Adam and for Jet and for Life is stronger than it was a month ago.  And I have a beautiful hope for the future.  So thank You. Thank You for this trial. Thank You for this new depth of love.

family.

Don't you just love summer.  Vacations, BBQ's, swimming, and sooo much family!  We spent the night at Lava Hot Springs back in June which was a first for me...  Can you believe it!  Born and raised just hours away from the quaint, but quite famous hot-spring town, and it took 21 years to get me there.  So here we are :)  We camped at a neat little camp site right by the river, which included its own petting zoo (3 goats in a pen), horrendous bathrooms (but bathrooms nonetheless), and the "I-15" of train tracks, close enough we could feel the earth shake with every passing (about once an hour).  

Wanna know the easiest, cheapest summer vacation?? Camping!  Adam and I.. and Jet LOVE camping! So far we've been up Diamond Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon, Yuba Lake, and Hobblecreek Canyon twice.  Adam loves being in the great outdoors and using all his gear, Jet loves to sniff e v e r y t h i n g... but my favorite thing about camping is S'MORES!  Camping is just not complete without them.  Last weekend we made tin foil dinners to take up Hobblecreek and they were ohh so amazing!

AND you can't have the 4th of July with out the Oakley Rodeo!  YEE HAW!

 

So I finally made it around to updating the bloggy blog...  I just got so far behind and then once I was behind I didn't even know where to start so I just kept putting it off, until now!  So what's new? An easier question would be what's NOT new?  Adam and I are living in Orem now in my most favorite apartment ever!  Its called Pinnacle Canyon View.  The location is perfect...right off the freeway and RIGHT behind Walmart, literally I fall asleep to the sound of an idling semi truck when they park in the parking lot for the night.  That may sound sarcastic, but I really do love the location.  Today I was making pizza and realized I needed cheese when my 'raises-in-5-minutes' dough was raising, and was actually pleased that I had something to do to pass the 5 minutes.  PLUS we have a pool!  I feel like I'm on vacation every weekend...  Okay I've actually only felt like that one weekend because of all this rain, but still.

Also new, is the job front for both Adam and I.  I got a job as a dental assistant (not to be confused with a dental hygienist which requires 2 years of school and pays ALOT better) at Ashman Dental, and I love it!  There's just something about staring into people's mouths all day... :)  And School?  Good question.  The most recent idea of pursuit is Dental Hygiene, which means I would transfer from BYU to UVU..sorry Cougs.. and apply to their 2 year program.  Maybe.  And then there is Adam....(drum roll!)  Adam is following his dream of owning his very own business.  He recently started a business called ClearPro Auto Glass with a friend of his, and it seems to be going well (For more information please visit clearproautoglass.com or find them on Facebook).

Also new... Jet got even cuter! Can you believe it?  He is almost 9 months old now and weighing in at a whopping 6 pounds!  He can now sit, lay down, roll over (only to the right), shake, and crawl on command, with or without words!  He has a new best friend, his 2-month-old, Yorkiepoo cousin, Lyla.  Who might sound sweet and innocent, but boy can she put up a fight :)  

So thats about it with us Young's, just working and playing :) We're going to Lava Hot Springs this weekend with the Fam so I'll have something else to blog about!  Oh and I AM RUNNING THE TOP OF UTAH HALF MARATHON ON AUGUST 27TH! And I'm announcing it to everyone so I can't back out :)

A Beautiful Labor Day Weekend

I remember when I was younger, my aunties would often tell me, "Ohhh you are just growing up way too fast!"  I just smiled and figured that was just something people said...well I can honestly say that my little cousins are growing up WAY to fast!  In fact my little TT is officially taller than me, and i'm still trying to grasp the fact that they are in junior high...it feels like I was just in junior high.  After I got over the shock of looking up to my 12-year-old cousin, I had the best time ever hangin' with the fam!  And I made a yummy salad!

Santa Fe Salad

2 heads Romaine lettuce

2 c. black beans, rinsed (Adam convinced my to use Fiesta Style)

1 c. diced tomatoes

1/2 red, yellow, and green bell pepper

1 c. corn

2 ripe avocados

1 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Sweet Jalapeno Cilantro Dressing

3 Jalapeno peppers, seeded to desired taste

1 c. olive oil

1/3 c. sugar

1/2 c. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. mayonnaise (I used ranch dressing)

1/2 c. fresh cilantro

Puree in a blender.

Labor Day also means that we have survived our first week of school!  My classes: Elementary Education 101 (It's very obvious that my professor has spent most of her career as a kindergarten teacher), Storytelling (Did you know that storytelling is actually a profession?  I had no idea), English, Integrated Life Science (apparently I just can't get enough science), and Pilates!  Adam is taking: Math (which he just loves..), Economics (Zzzzzz), Spanish, Bowling (Very fun), and we are taking a Rock Climbing class together!  We definitely have our academics and our play balanced well.

Mr. and Mrs. Adam Christopher Young

What a wonderful first summer Adam and I have had together as Mr. and Mrs. Young! We have made a cute little home in our tiny cottage, and have settled nicely into our Logan life.  This summer we slept on the beach of Bear Lake, camped up Green Canyon, played in the hot springs at Riverdale Resort, saw Carrie Underwood at the Stadium of Fire, went to Fish Lake and Calf Creek Falls, and most of all enjoyed making our new life together!  Oh and I cut my hair!  Unfortunately though, our summer is coming to an end in more ways than one.  Today was the first day of back to school, and what a cold, wet one it was.  It was a jeans and

  sweatshirt day today as the high was only 61 degrees here...

          

Adam and I are both returning to school with new majors this semester :) Adam will be working on a degree in Spanish to prepare for his Masters in Business, and I will be preparing to apply to the Elementary Education program in March! We are very excited!  Both our jobs are going well.  Adam is still providing Cache Valley with cell phones, and I am making sure they have yummy bread!  It's a wonderful life!