Migraines and Bucketlist Items

Well this last week was great and horrible at the same time! I've been having a lot of problem with migraines. I ended up having a day where I just had to stay home from work. But alas, all is well. We'll figure it out.

On Friday, I got to go to Jurrasic Park 3D with some friends and then we went out for ice cream after. That was really fun to just have a night out on the town. I don't go to movie theaters very often-but obviously for a good 3-D movie you need to. It was just the original Jurrasic Park movie, redone. It was awesome!!

On Saturday I crossed something off my bucketlist!! I went with Josh, Kathryn G., and her old roommate, Rachel Boaz to the Festival of Colors here in SLC. We walked in, hadn't bought chalk and people were just throwing the chalk on us. By the time we made it to the line for chalk we almost didn't need to buy any because we were covered in color. We still bought some chalk so we could cover each other even more and throw it on to other people.
It had been raining off and on all day and we were a bit worried about it. But we hit the perfect window-it was raining as I drove to the Festival and then as we were leaving, it started to rain again. Here are a few pictures of our lovely colors!

I have a lot on my bucketlist and I'm continually adding to it, so we'll see what other adventures we can find myself on over the next little while!

I've just finished up a book called Personal Entropy for work. Basically it discusses how to increase your productivity-the factors that contribute or deter you from that goal. It was a great read and I wrote a little bit more of the specifics on my "Keeping Up With Business Blog" if you want to check it out.

A little bit from my scripture study: I was finishing up 1 Nephi and starting 2 Nephi. These are a few things I found that we can use to come closer to Christ and other patterns I saw or thoughts that I had:

In 1 Nephi 20-22, something I found is the fact that Christ is the light and that there will be a prophet to lead his church. We know that there was a time where the earth had no prophet but since Joseph Smith restored the gospel to the earth, we will always have a prophet to lead and guide us. That is a powerful tool: to have the  mouthpiece of God so close. These scriptures also talk about how the righteous need not fear.

With my 100 Days Closer to Christ, there is a scripture of the day and a thought of the day. I LOVED the thought of the day that went with these scriptures: "Our faith in the Lord is the source of spiritual power that will give you and me the assurance that we have nothing to fear from jeourney." -M. Russell Ballard

If we follow Christ and have faith we will have spiritual power to lean on at all times--even the tough times!! I believe those are the most important times to be leaning on faith so that I don't stray from the path of truth and righteousness.

Have a good week! Keep Christ's light close and challenge yourself to try something new :)

Movements

Lately I've been really focused on working out and trying to stay active. I've been going to a couple of yoga classes and trying to go running a few times a week. It is so interesting to see how much the body is capable of even when your mind thinks you can't take another step or you can't bend any further. Your body stores tension in different areas of the body-maybe the neck or the shoulders or the hips and then your body moves in different ways in order to release that tension. As I'm doing yoga and running I feel that tension and stress leave me. It is amazing and makes me want to continue to run and "yoga."

It is interesting how people get into different routines, once you've learned how to do something or where something is, it has become second nature to do that thing or go to that place. Sometimes I find myself stuck in these routines and not paying attention to the details of what is around me. I've driven the same route to work almost every day since September. I've changed it up a little here and there but I've found the fastest route and that's the way I go. Just recently, I was sitting at a stop light and I looked up and saw that there was a NewBalance store there on the corner. I sat and thought to myself, "Is that new?" and I couldn't answer. I had no idea because I had just driven straight down that road. I wonder how many other details and beautiful things I miss because I'm just trying to get to work or to the store. I will be safe but I want to be more observant about the awesome things that I have around me. I want to admire the architecture and wonder at the big trees and  ponder about the people I see walking. There is so much to take in and I'm going to try to take in a little more of the movements around me.

In my last post I talked about sticking to the basics in reference to gospel principles. In September, I began my 100 Days Closer to Christ with my scripture study. I did well for the first little while and then kind of fell apart. I'm going to start again to help focus my scripture study. I also have a goal to study my scriptures for 1/2 an hour every day. I'm sharing this because I'm the type of person that once I've shared a goal, I'm much more likely to achieve it. Anyone and everyone is welcome, and encouraged, to check up on me and these goals! We will see my movements and steps in my spiritual progression and strength to withstand temptation and be a strength to those around me.

There are movements all around us and in our own lives. We must embrace these  movements. We must learn and grow from these movements.

Inspired Steps and March Madness...in April?

I know, I know..it has been a very long time since I've blogged. A few people bugged me about this but I just couldn't find time to write. I have been inspired by my dear friend, Josh, to post. I now commit to the world that I'm going to do better! :)

Well it is April. I have all of 2013 to catch you up on but don't worry, I won't do it all in one post, that would get overwhelming for everyone. So I've decided to just talk about April and then as I'm writing future posts I may refer back to, and catch everyone up on the first part of 2013.




Usually March is filled with basketball for people considering March Madness but my basketball craze came in April. As an FHE activity we were able to attend a Jazz vs. Portland game. It was a lot of fun to hang out with some of my girlfriends from the ward. I was also thinking, it was the first bball game I had been to since college.






A week later, I went to a work conference on benefits. We met at the Energy Solutions Arena (previously known as the Delta Center) and had an all day training with drawings, food, etc. After the training we had dinner and then we went to a Jazz basketball game. We were playing the Thunder! One of the drawings throughout the day was for us to go down onto the court during halftime and high-five the players as they came back onto the court. We were suppose to cheer them on and pump them up for the second half. I was selected for this AWESOME task :) We ended up getting free t-shirts too.

The players were not all that excited because they were losing-and these games are really important because they are battling for 8th place in the tournament against the LA Lakers. So they need all the wins they can get. We tried to be as positive as possible and cheer them on as they high-fived and fist-pumped us. Even though they were losing, it was super cool to be down on the court.

I went up to Logan for Easter and my mother's birthday at the end of March. We had my birthday dinner (only 2 months late) at El Torro Viejo- my FAVORITE Mexican restaurant. It was fun to spend time with my family. I pretty much hadn't gone to Logan since the beginning of the year and I miss Cache Valley.









A few thoughts that I've had in April:

*General Conference: came at the perfect time. I was reminded of a lot of basic, key principles that may have been lacking. Sometimes I get so caught up in details that I have to step back and go to the basics. Where is my foundation? What am I leaning on? What is important to me and am I doing what I need to to get that? I love being able to listen to our church leaders. I felt such a spirit as they were talking and I'm excited to go back and study their words again. I was able to listen to the Priesthood session. I particularly loved Elder Hales talk. Even the quote that is at the beginning is perfect "Standing obedient and strong on the doctrine of our God, we stand in holy places, for His doctrine is sacred and will not change." My life is always changing, I am always changing but if I am holding onto something constant, that is true, I will remain on a stable foundation. I will be able to help others through their changing times. And we can remain true to God. I just love this gospel. I just have to remember to stick to the basics.

*People: are in my life for a reason. I just want to give a shout out to all of my friends and family and say thank you. Especially, those new friends in my life. Keep living by the spirit because at times you don't know-through your example and words you are blessing those around you. Each of you are blessing my life. I love people. I love learning from you. I love learning about you. I love serving you. I love spending time with you.
I have been blessed with this ability to love easily and forgive easily and that makes me vulnerable to get hurt easily. After chatting with a friend, he said (and I am paraphrasing), it is better to love and forgive and get hurt then to close up and not be blessing those may be needing that love. So I will continue to put myself out there and love and forgive and I trust that the Lord is there to help me get through the pain may come later.

I feel like I could keep writing all day about random things! This post HAS been very random and scattered and the next one may be too since I'm trying to catch you up. But I'll get back to my normal posts soon. But there are a few thoughts and steps from Cydnee's April 2013.

Am I Taking Steps to What I Desire?

I haven't posted since right before Thanksgiving and I have been thinking a lot since then! Some interesting things happened with a job in Minnesota which ended up causing me to think about what I really want: where I want to end up and how I want to get there. I found this clip and I wanted to share it:

Do What You Desire

The Minnesota job may have been what I wanted in the end but did not have the steps that I wanted to take to get there. I felt uneasy, as did others about me taking that job. I backed off and felt really good about that decision.

I had a great opportunity over Thanksgiving to spend some quality time with my dear friend Franchesca. She got her  wisdom teeth taken out and needed some assistance. Zach, Natalie and I took turns taking care of her. On my last day, she was actually awake and we had some quality girl chat and I realized how much I missed having roommates and really just talking and listening. I haven't had that very much since I moved to SLC and it was a huge blessing. I learned a lot more aboout Franchesca's life and am even more thankful for her friendship. 


The Friday of Thanksgiving weekend I got more family time. We went to the Octoberfest, we went to the Cinafour Theater and saw our very own private showing of Brave and we went to Wingers for linner. It was a very fun day!



Our Private Showing of Brave

The next week I was able to catch up with some old friends, SaraJoy and Wendy. They are two ladies I had the joy of meeting in Belize! Raymon and I with those two went out to dinner and enjoyed an evening out. It was fun to catch up.  Later in the week Raymon and I went to lunch as well at Kneaders and shared a sandwich because we are awesome like that! I love walking downtown with people I love and trust, sharing a sandwich and talking about life. It is pleasant.

Thursday night I got to drive to Logan and enjoy the company of some of my favorite people (now I have a lot of favorite people...so don't get offended). But I went and chatted with Jared Burge, Trent Fawcett, and Chase Bowler. We talked and then ended up playing bang when Suzie B showed up and it was great fun. Whenever I am in Logan, my body is overcome with this power to stay up super late and I'm not sure where it comes from...but after playing bang, Chase and I went for a walk up to the USU campus and just talked more. It was a chilly night but beautiful.

Friday I had injections in my back. It was not fun, to say the least. The procedure itself was fine, I was not in pain and afterwards I was actually doing really well. I was walking and doing better than most patients. Then about an hour after, I started to go downhill. I was icing like they told me too. My family was going out to Chili's and I was starving so I went with but I was in so much pain. That night ended up being a very long one I couldn't sleep very well. When I woke up, I was feeling okay.





I went and had breakfast with Kayci and Preston which was very enjoyable. By the end of that visit I was in a little bit more pain than I wanted to be. I went home and laid down. We were suppose to be heading to Park City but I needed to drive myself. I took some meds and prayed to be okay.






My family got ready to go and I waited until I absolutely had to move. Sitting is pretty much the worst position to be in when you are having back pain-so the drive wasn't the greatest but I know it could have been worse.


Once we got there I took some more meds and laid down while the family got settled in. We ended up having an enjoyable evening going to the outlet stores, where I bought two little hats that I really like. Then we went to a mexican place in honor of Tyler's 20th birthday dinner. We went to a place called Loco Lizard. I drove home on Sunday night so that I could work again on Monday moring.

That next week left me in a lot...A LOT of pain! My back and neck hurt so much. I was on my knees praying to my Heavenly Father for relief and strength because I knew He was the only one that could give it to me. I am taking the steps I to what I desire. I am trying to study my scriptures more and pray more fervently because I want to be a good wife and great mother. I want to be an example to those around me of how to live close to their Savior and how to be happy. That is what I desire and although my health has been giving me issues and I don't know my career path and I don't know when I'll be getting married, I do know how to control my attitude and how to come closer to Savior.

I love this gospel and it takes small steps to come closer to what I desire. I will make it, one day, I will make it.

The Rest Of Florida and Then Some

The rest of my Florida trip ended up going wonderfully! Chad let me take the ranch truck and on Thursday I drove Northwest to explore Orlando. I decided I just wanted to do free things so here are bit of my adventures:

These pictures here are at Eola Lake Park. It is located right downtown in Orlando. The picture on above is on the east side near a Chinese pagoda (to the right) and a Confederate States of America monument.


On the west side of the park there is the Walt Disney Amphitheater and more of the "down town" area such as some cathederals, the library, the Citrus Bowl arena, etc.  I didn't go to all of these sites but I saw signs or I passed some as I was driving to the lake. This picture below is on the Southside by a little fountain that I liked.

I drove about fifteen minutes North to a place called Maitland and went to the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. This was just a small museum with artifacts, videos of survivors, and facts about the Holocaust. There was also a library section. It was a lot smaller than I expected but it was still cool to look around.

Now I'm one for bargains so I thought it would be cool to take a small step and see what a flea market was like. I had been to China Town in Australia and it was pretty much like that! I drove up and seriously thought I was going to get shot or mugged. There were a lot of groups of people huddled together, smoking, playing gangster music. I was a little worried but I decided to walk around the parking lot and enter into a different area of the Flea Market. There ended up being a lot of similar shops but I found a couple of things to buy. I feel that I don't really need to go to a flea market again, unless I have a specific purpose!

 

 

This next place was called Black Hammock Adventures in Oviedo, FL. This time I started driving back South over Lake Jesup to find this place. It was gorgeous. They had some gators and birds. I just enjoyed more fresh air and gorgeous scenery. This first picture here you actually see Lake Jesup behind me.

After enjoying the view I ate at the Black Hammock Restaurant and enjoyed clam chowder and mozzarella sticks! It was just s small place but really yummy :)

 This was one of the gators that they had.

 Later that afternoon I circled back down to the ranch and Dale gave me a ride on the airboat. If you haven't riden one it is different than a normal boat. You don't rely on the water. The engine in the back powers it and air pushes you :) So we started out on land and went down a ditch onto the St. John river. It was weird to get used to. As Dale started to head toward some of the greenery, I got nervous, as we smoothly glided over it my grip lightened again and I was just in awe at the coolness and the beauty around me. It was cloudy so we didn't get to see as much wildlife but it was still super cool.

Friday night Trevor and I went to Denny's for Dinner and then we went to the new Abraham Lincoln movie. It was a really good movie!




















Saturday turned out fantastic as well with Trevor and I going to the Kennedy Space Center. Everything was massive! That was the thought that kept running through my mind. Trevor had such an analytical look at everything. He cared about the why and how, while I just thought it was cool. I'm glad that we got to go together.

 The picture above here is part of the new Orion rocket they are building.

This picture is of the VAB-just to give you an idea of how big it is-when you open part of that up it is as wide as an 8-lane building!

After the Kennedy Space Center, we drove to Cocoa Beach and played for just a little bit. It was so freeing to let the waves hit me over and over again. Trevor stayed more on the beach and put his feet in while I was getting hit head on by the waves. I LOVED it. I have this connection with water that I cannot explain. I just can't get enough of it and wish that it wouldn't have been getting dark so quick.

I'm heading home now for the long Thanksgiving break. I hope that we can all serve those around us and show how grateful we are for our big and small blessings. We have so much to be grateful for and we tend to make a bigger deal about it around Thanksgiving but it is important all year-round. I'm thankful for the gospel and for the Atonement that can make us whole one small step at a time. Sometimes the steps hurt but when we hold on to our Lord he can take some of that pressure off. This is the true Church.


Sorry this post was so long but there was so much to share about the trip! :)

A Few Big Steps

I have made a few big steps since my last post and had a few small fun steps. First, I mentioned that I felt I was going in circles with my decision about the Washington job. I decided NOT to take the job. I know what I'm worth, what I can offer, and what I want to do. That job did not fit any of those and I feel really good about my decision. I am job searching now. I'm looking for and focusing on an HR Coordinator or Assistant HR Generalist with an emphasis as a Recruiting Specialist or in Training and Development. I'm not completely blocking anything out but having a focus is helpful.

Last weekend I went to Logan again and went to the doctor. My doctor was very helpful this time and we're making some progress. We're going to do injections in my back at the end of this month-this should create the opportunity for physical therapy to help more. Also my migraines will hopefully be getting help by some progressive medication and a CAT-scan in December to make sure my brain is okay.




On Saturday I had lunch with a group of dear friends at Pizza Pie Cafe and then I met up with my old friend, Christina Bateman. She had me over to dinner with her family and then we went to a community show, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, at the Old Rock church. It was a very delightful show.







I enjoyed my sister's and mother's primary program. I made some notes of a few things that I learned/was reminded of. One of the things that was said was something like, "I know that my Savior loves me no matter what and if I repent I can be forgiven." I believe this without a doubt. We make the same mistakes over and over, even when we are trying so hard to be better. But as long as I sincerely repent and recommit, I know that the Lord forgives me and I can try again.



When I came back to Salt Lake from Logan I found about 14" of snow at my home!! Lots of snow and very pretty :) Friday morning it was snowing before I left and of course I had to take a picture of the temple.

This week I'm in Florida for work. I found out that a friend (Trevor Nielson) was a Cattle Intern here and so we've planned to get together a bit throughout this week. I've been learning about training, HR, safety, and touring the ranch. I've also eaten some of my favorite food. Chad took me to an Italian place for lunch yesterday. Chad and his wife took Trevor and me to dinner last night at a sea food place last night and today for lunch we had a company lunch where they cooked steak! YUMMY! Everything has been so pretty, even though it is winter so it isn't quite as green as usual. Today was cloudy so we didn't get to see very many aligators but I did see two of them.






Tomorrow I'll either be going to the beach or go explore Orlando a bit-not sure yet. Then in the afternoon I will come back to the ranch and we're going to do an airboat ride. Then Sat Trevor and I are planning to do Kennedy Space Center. I'll be able to tell you more about that later! I'm going to go to Trevor's for dinner and go to Institute with him then do some job searching tonight. Life is good, my skin is clearing up in this wonderful humidity, and I'm sleeping well in this amazing amazing bed.

Big Steps, Small Steps...as long as I'm taking steps forward it doesn't matter what size they are.

Feels like a Circle

Today is going to be pretty brief but I wanted to write for just a minute. First I have to share this amazing picture. As I left work tonight the sunlight was almost gone but looking back at the temple I had to stop and take a picture. It still doesn't give it justice but still beautiful.












Bonnie and I decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory today-it was just one of those days. We each got a slice of Cheesecake and it was divine! My slice choice was "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough"...seriously, SOOO good! :)




This last weekend was slightly eventful. Bonnie invited me over for a girl's night. We had pizza and then we all went and saw Taken 2. That was pretty fun! One of Bonnie's friends, Holly, was from Nibley. I found out that she is Katie White's sister. Small world.

On Saturday, a friend of Bryce Smalley's, called me and we went to lunch. Her name is Hayli. We went to City Creek and had lunch at BlueLemon, then walked around to some stores. She bought a dress and I bought a couple of $5 shirts. Then we were both desperate to clean out our cars so she showed me this place she always goes. We got car washes and then vacuumed out our cars. Not your typical hang out activity but very productive! I loved it!

Now for the circles: I've been tossing and turning about a job offer for Washington. At first it was a job offer, then it was the process of being interviewed, then they didn't know if they had a position anymore, then they had the position but she didn't know if I was still interested. I finally interviewed again today and I feel like there were a lot of circles going on about some of her reservations and my reservations and I'm back to not knowing what to do. I am praying and trying to understand and trust what the Lord is telling me. I know he will not let me make a wrong choice but that doesn't make this an easy decision. I want a straight line, no more circles!

I'm so thankful for the friends and family that I have that love and support me, no matter how far apart we are. I have great examples on missions across the world, I have friends locally, and I have friends all over the country. Thanks for your prayers, your kind thoughts/messages, your encouraging words, and your influence for good. I love having people to turn to when I feel like my small steps aren't taking me very far.