Christmas is the best!

What a great Christmas. It was spent with family, food and the Spirit. Nothing is better than those three things. I received great presents this year. A new coat which was very much needed, a statue of my fave princess Sleeping Beauty(thanks Camille), a story about Christmas story by my father, and a book called 21 Days Closer to Christ. My nieces and nephews reminded me how exciting Christmas can be and remembering what it is to be a child. I love having young children around now at Christmas. They make it so fun.
So my pondering of this day to celebrate the beginning of the Savior's mission on earth has been a happy one. Yes the birth is important, but it is how He lived and taught that is important. Also His death and Resurrection that is wonderful as well. But today was the day to remember that glorious night our Savior came down to redeem all men. How amazing that night must have been to see this baby be born who in 33 years would suffer and die for all man would be able to return to our Father in heaven. He came knowing He would suffer to pay our debts from our sins and make it possible to be able to repent. I love the Savior and am in continuous awe of Him. I am looking forward to this book to help me stretch and grow more spiritually. I have grown a lot spiritually already this year, but I know I have so much more to go. I want to push myself more to be in tune. Even though I can say now that I no longer just believe in the Savior, but I know He lives. I know and He is my best friend, but I want to know more and be closer to Him so I can serve Him better and do His work better. There is this quote by C.S Lewis in the beginning of this book that struck me. It says, "You are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you". What a wonderful and scary thing to know. I am excited, but know I am going to be pushing myself to grow in ways that may seem hard or uncomfortable, but it will be worth it and it will be beautiful in the end. So that is what I have pondered this Christmas and looking forward to growing more. Merry Christmas friends!

Trying to lose the rest of this weight sucks!

I have been trying to lose weight on and off for about two years now. I have lost almost about 80lbs now, but I am 30lbs away to the goal i want. I started off wanting to get down to a size 16, but now I am so close to being so that I changed it to get to a size 12. Today I put on a dress I haven't worn since 2002 and it fit. I got excited after a lot of hard work is paying off, but it is still hell. I am changing not only exercising almost everyday, but my eating habits. The hardest thing for me is giving up Dr. Pepper. I love, love, love my Dr. Pepper. I have 3 a day, I know that is horrible, but I used to drink 6, so i have improved. I hope you will give me some credit on trying to conquering this addiction!:) Now I am giving it up. I bought 5 12 packs yesterday and when those are gone no more Dr. Pepper for me. A sad, sad day in my life, but I have to for my health and weight loss. I also have been working on my eating habits that I have had for 20 years. That is hard, but I am determined to be a healthy person. I don't want to be super skinny, just healthy. Also my friends and family are pushing me to run a 5K. So I think that is going to be a goal I set for myself even though I loathe running with a huge passion!!!!! But with that said, it is a good clear goal for me to just try. I am getting huge on just trying and giving things a chance lately. I did that with the Gospel two years ago, to try to live it fully and not partly, and now look how I have changed and grown into this happy, calmer person. I think it is important to do all you can in this life and live it. So fat on my body that is being so stubborn to come off. You have been warned that this is going to be the biggest battle yet. I just wish you would be more of a team player like you were for the first 70lbs. That fat came off fast, but no, now you have to be difficult. Well I can be too!!! Wish me luck everyone!!!

Spiritual Milestones

I was thinking a lot about milestones in every aspect of life lately (have not been sleeping well so my mind is thinking a lot. I just hope people who read this don't think I am oh so serious now because again I am very balanced. I am just growing a lot spiritually this year, crazy fast. I am making up for all those years I screwed around :)). It is funny where my brain goes to tie up random thoughts I have had through out many weeks. One of my primary kids got baptised over the weekend and I thought she is now having one of the spiritual milestones that we must have in life to learn from and get to the next step. My uncle who passed away is having another spiritual milestone by going on to the next life. I had a milestone 8 months ago by receiving that awesome gift of my endowments in the temple. Those are all amazing happy milestones that we get to experience in this life and even in the next. We also have to have those sad milestones. A few weeks ago I was in Deseret Book looking around. For those who know me I am not a person who usually cries. I am not emotional at all, that being said I was looking at all the amazing pictures of the Savior. My heart was full of love then I saw the painting called Against the Wind by Liz Lemon Swindle. I started to get teary eyed right there in the store. Why you ask, a girl who rarely cries unless I am really hurting, well I looked at that painting and I know exactly how that feels to be drowning and our Savior is holding on to you, trying to hold you up. Trying to pull you out, grasping so hard, being so scared and to be lifted up finally embracing my Savior. I have such a love for my big brother. He is my best friend and I am eternally grateful to Him for holding on to me and never letting go. Every time I think of Him or see a painting of Him I get teary eyed which I love but also find strange since again I have never ever been like this until recently. My family teases me about it. I guess it is funny to see how I have changed :). Anyways as embarrassing as that story may be the other day it hit me that we also have to hit that hard trial and know what it feels like to have the Lord hold on to you even when you want to let go, He never will. He may loose His grip a little because sometimes we need to fight on our own, but He is there supporting us. Anyways it is another spiritual milestone that we all have to have to grow spiritually. As crappy as it can be, but it is for our own good. My last thought is we all have to allow our hearts open to for us to hit our milestones, but our Lord also gives us many chances to do so. If we miss it once, He will allow us to do it again until we get it. We are all our on our own awesome journey of learning. I am glad of this because I remember when I was in my early 20's and I could have hit one and I didn't until recently. If He gave us only one chance, man I would be screwed!!! So this is what happens when random thoughts become one in the strange, but pretty cool brain of Amy. ( I just hope it makes sense to all of you because it always makes sense to me, but i do get that others may get lost.)

A Milestone in my Career

I have hit a major achievement in my career, so before I reveal what it is I first have to thank some people. First my high school teacher who took me to a child care facility knowing that I would be good at teaching children and helped me get my first teaching job. Second all the kids I have taught over the years, without you this would not be possible. Third, all the teachers who have trained me and helped me become the teacher I am today and I am continuing to grow and learn from other professionals. So what is this milestone I have made in my 11 years of teaching young children you ask? Well as of today I have potty trained my 200th child. Yes, I have trained 200 young children how to use the toilet. Crazy huh? I did the math today during my lunch. I was bored and I just had a kid today who got the hang of it and so I was like, hmm how many kids have I potty trained? Truly an accomplishment I will continue to brag about for the rest of my life and more children will be added to that number in the coming years. I know you are all jealous of my major accomplishment, I can feel it! :)
Also I realized I haven't really updated on me lately besides my spiritual things, so I thought I would take a moment to do so. Well, still socially awkward, but continuing to work on trying to be a little less. Not that I will ever be completely not awkward socially, but a little less would be super great. Also still working on losing these last 30lbs. Kicking my butt hard with slow results, but will continue to kick butt. Also after many years of not really having a celebrity crush because I really don't watch a lot of TV, but someone got me hooked on the show the vampire diaries and I fell fantasy in love with the actor on there. I really could stare at him all day and never get bored. I'm really not in love with him, I just like looking at him, so basically I am in visual lust with him. I don't want to know anything about him or any of that crap, again I just enjoy looking at him. I mean maybe I would like to make out with him once or twice and I think could die happy and completely satisfied with my life!! Just Kidding. So that is the update of me, still happy and truly loving my simple life that some may see as boring, but I live life with a great love and appreciation that is so simply perfect. Learning all I can, loving as much as I can, growing in scary new awesome ways as a human being, and just love being plain ordinary. I believe that being an ordinary person is truly extraordinary. I don't need to do a lot of amazing things to matter in this life. Loving and serving the Lord the best I can, being kind to others, work hard on everything I need to, and working on always trying to be the best person in this life is all I feel that matters. Life is good in the life of Amy!!!