High-Fives

optimist or pessimist, it's no secret that sometimes life just sucks. But I am a firm believer that everyday there are little things sent to you to make each day bearable. Phill used to call them "high-fives from Heavenly Father." Today was a little rough, but it started out with a perk, i put on my pants this morning, ha, no that wasn't the perk even though it is an impressive feat some days. But this is what i discovered as i put my pants on this morning:

So, let's be honest when your awesome green pants remind you that God Loves You, that's quite the high-5...

As the high of any high-5 eventually wears off, as did this one, but there was another one waiting. I decided to take a run this evening, when i got home i was tired and frustrated, and missing Phill more than usual, so i put on our playlist and stared at the sky, high-5:

These events may mean nothing to all of you, but they are a divine testimony that my Father in Heaven is mindful of me and knows when i am in need of comfort.

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." John 14:18

so that happened...

so what's new? this is probably one of my least favorite questions, because honestly, nothing has been new in my life since...sliced bread? No? okay so, i have new things happening in my life, but none are really worth mentioning. But i haven't blogged in a while so here, my friends, is "what is new":

After Benjamin's graduation Rick and Kira stayed in town for the rest of the week, that Saturday (you know the one with all the rain and lightning) we went to lagoon. truly. The beauty of it was that there were no lines and we did what would take an entire day to do at Lagoon, in about 2 hours. The constant riding without much of a break lead us all to some pretty intense nausea. ha. it's all apart of the experience right? The rain was dumping in buckets which added an extra special element to all the rides: extreme pain. ha. You get pouring rain hitting you are you are cruising on the coaster and you've got 100 icy needles to the face. awesome? YES! We're pretty hardcore.

That's my dad....poncho was a titch too tight.



So that happened....


Another question i am learning to loath, is "how much more schooling do you have left?" Mostly because i think people are expecting me to get done quicker than i actually am. But every time i have to tell someone it's going to be a couple more years and they seem displeased, I'd like to just put a big ole FAILURE sticker on my forehead. haha. I am getting to my graduation as quickly as i can! which leads me to what else is new, and that is summer semester. yay for summer school am i right? Right, now i am only taking 9 credits, but i could feel myself giving out so i had to take it a wee bit easier for my own sanity. It's going great though, i love school, i love to learn, i love how long it is taking me (lies) and i LOVE that my senior thesis is looming over my head and i have yet to come up with a topic...all in good time.

so that happened....

in other news, Phillip aka Elder Phillip J. Brandley recently hit 18 months out. Yup, we are on the down hill slide of the last mountain. And just as going down hill when hiking can be more painful than going up-- thus is the joy of being on the down hill slide of a mission it is painful, and SO MUCH harder! But we grin and bear it, because 1. what else can ya do and 2. it will all be worth it (or so i'd like to think). On a positive note, people are much nicer when you hit t-minus 6 months. haha. Took them long enough to get the picture;)

so that happened...

One last thing that is almost new but mostly not, is that i have been doing group training at my gym with a group of about 5-6 girls and one of the trainers from the Gym. It has been so much fun, and i have loved getting more fit and feeling stronger. You know what they say, "strong is the new sexy"....they say that, who knows if it's true?

Also along with being fit and such, i took a little hike up Waterfall canyon...actually a long time ago, i just never blogged about it, fail. i have a serious fear of snakes. i can't help it they are the living worst. I have a love for hiking, but my snake phobia cancels out how much i love it, so i usually only hike in early may and late September. (if i can help it.) call me a pansy i just cannot handle the idea of running into one of those terrible things on the trail. Luckily for me i was blessed from above on my hike and i only saw a little lizard. victory!

Anyways....that's what has been happening.

life is good.

Good Old Weber...

Good Old Weber High, forever known as the bombshelter that not even a full fledged blitzkrieg could have dented, has finally freeded the last of the Westbroek children.  Benjamin has strutted right out of those sunless halls into the bright beaming glory of public school liberation! I couldn't be more proud!
In his senior year he took difficult AP classes and aced them of course, becuase he's brilliant. Also helped lead his Soccer team to win the Region 1 Championship and earned the 3rd highest ranking team in the state of Utah! Truly Amazing! Ben is the only one of the siblings to graduate with honors! (The rest of us didn't care enough. haha. shame on us.) In all honesty i can't believe he is graduated. He is one of the most amazing people i know, and i can't wait to see what he'll do in the future!

All my siblings, All Weber High School Graduates!
Kira, Erick, Ben, Kaitlin, and Me.

We're only a little jealous of those golden chords....dang genius.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Today was a lazy Sunday afternoon, as lazy as a person with a 3 year old and a 1 year old can be. The fun began after Maya and Teancum woke up from their afternoon naps. We took a little stroll around the block and ran into a Benjamin. He was long boarding home from the soccer field and he offered Maya a ride, like a true Prince Charming.

When we got home, Ben put the long board on the grass and it was time for Teancum to have a go:

He's a pro already! Maya then started to make us an amazing meal of grass, which ultimately became enchiladas with rice, spaghetti, and hot dogs, followed by cookies and cupcakes of course.

Bonk!

You can't see Maya's cute face in any of these so here is one from Saturday:







I love these two and they have brought so much joy into our home over the passed few days! Can't wait to keep experiencing them every minute until Jake and Celestial come home!

Birthday

This last Friday was my 21st birthday! How did it go you ask? Well, it was one of my most bizarre birthdays...actually I kept forgetting it even was my birthday! ha. This is what happened. I woke up in the morning at 7??? who does that? Got up, and my cute mama made me sausage sandwiches me gusta! Then she sadly informed me that she had to go take care of my Grandma, because her regular care giver was sick. So i spent my birthday alone...until about 1 o'clock when i picked up two children, Maya and Teancum are Phill's niece and nephew and they are staying with me while their mommy and daddy are in the Philippines. Having them on my Birthday was so fun, but it made me totally forget that it was even my birthday because i was crazy busy with them. It was worth it though. Besides that weird beginning/middle, it ended amazingly.  Everyone was home for cake and ice cream and since Teancum's 1st Birthday was the day before mine we made it a double party and let him join in on the cupcake fun!

Of course Maya had a lot of fun too! This made up for the bitter disappointment that were my presents...to Maya, not me i loved my presents! ha. She was really excited to help me open presents, but was severely disappointed to find out that grown up presents are not quite as fun as little girl presents. But she was a trooper and helped me open all of them!

My parents always treat me waaaay more than i deserve. And this year took the cake. While opening my presents i came upon a shoe box...no surprise there i picked them out myself and was expecting to find them. So Maya and i opened the shoe box and i was telling here that there were sandals in there! then i move around the paper...uh....where are the sandals? Then it happened, i caught a glimpse of that iconic blue box tied with a white ribbon....TIFFANY'S!!!! After visiting the new City Creek Tiffany's & Co. i was bound and determined to own something from there and i didn't care what! So i had my mind set on this adorable silver band with a Tiffany Blue center, i had just been saving my pennies to get it. I opened the box...i pulled out the bag, i reached in, and there it was a giant CHECK off my bucket list! A ring from Tiffany's. I love it!

Telling Maya it's shoes...you can tell she's disappointed. haha.

Clearly i'm very excited...i can't even control how my face looks. haha.

Explaining it to Maya, She was less than amused, but i could not me more so;)

These are the sandals i thought i was opening when i got my ring:

Even my own feet gross me out, so i do not know why i am posting a picture of them.... i apologize. haha All in all despite a rocky beginning and middle, my birthday ended with a Big Bang (literally i watched the Big Bang theory at the end, because Kaitlin bought me the third season she's great.) Phill sent me "flowers" which was adorable, they were pictures he had taken of flowers along the way with little notes on the back of each, cute stuff.

Thank you to everyone who made my Birthday special.

21???

Ah, the time has come...this is my last week of being 20. Now let the rapid decay into my elderly years begin...it's all down hill from here. Kidding. Obviously i know I am still in my prime, but 21 seems a LOT older than 20, just sayin. As tradition has thus been held up, the week of one of my friend's 21st birthday we hold a Margarita Night, because for most people 21 means you get to go out and get wasted legally, but for us mormons the only thing we get to do when we turn 21 is hop on down to the DMV for a wild license renewal party. woot. Anyways, we work with what we've got and typically we replace tequila with a little extra lime juice to make us feel more hard core ;) As you may have guessed it was my margarita night this round and we made a killer batch of beverages!

The recipe is:
fresh cut strawberries
1/4 cup of lime juice
1/2 cup of orange juice
2 Tablespoons of sugar
ice

put it in a blender and wah-la Margarita ville ;)

As always when it comes to my cute friends we pretty much talk nonstop from beginning to end and we had tons of fun catching up! So i guess here is to a year of being 21. 

Little Victories.

Who ever gets sick of the constant pressure to lose weight? Every one raise your hand, because i know you agree. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for being healthy and fit, but there are times when the pressure gets ridiculous.  As I've been slowly making my way into a healthier lifestyle i have often felt so discouraged by how long it takes to change 20 years of bad habits. And to be honest, there will be habits that never change, I'm always going to love and eat chocolate when i want! fact. Just last week Celestial Brandley (Phill's sister-in-law) recruited me into a program called Fit in Six, it's a point system type competition, I was so gung-ho to do it the day it began, and then...out came the Easter candy and a few pre-final break downs and my week of healthy eating was shot to he....ck. This is the thing to remember about changing your lifestyle, you have to take babysteps or you WILL relapse!

Some people can get off stuff cold turkey and be a-okay, but between us normal people it takes a bullet proof safe to keep me away from the things i love to eat. 

My, oh so wise philosophy, is simply don't deprive yourself of things you love! Moderation of course, blah blah blah, but if you quit eating sweets or whatever your Achilles is chances are you'll binge later.

There is a thing in psychology called "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" essentially it means if you imagine yourself doing something or being something, most likely it will happen. For example, at the beginning of my Fit in Six challenge i said to myself you are going to sabotage yourself, because you hate it when people tell you what not to eat...and i did totally sabotage myself. haha. Luckily for me i can just laugh it off, because i just don't care. The key to all this weight loss get fit madness is that you have to feel good about yourself no matter what.

You can't take care of a body you don't love, so love the skin you are in my friends! Even after I've lost a few pounds i still feel the same most days, incredibly insecure...but I have been looking at it all wrong, i have been looking at how far i "need" to go instead of how far I've come. Fit in Six is a fun little program, and I'll keep doing it just to occupy my time and make achieving a healthy lifestyle a little easier.  But i will not feel bad if i have an off day, why? because i am human and i want to enjoy life, especially the sweeter things in life. ya know what i mean;) So here is to being confident in your own skin and doing things for yourself and not for the approval of others! Celebrate the little victories, here is an example of one of my victories that i didn't realize i had won until i put this together:

Left is me in 2010, and Right is me as i am today. I lost weight without depriving myself! to me that is a victory all around;) And i didn't do it for anyone else, just for me.

This post isn't to make anyone feel bad, but to show what a completely average person, with a sweets problem,  like myself can do. It's possible. And being healthy doesn't mean giving up everything you enjoy,to me it's just adding to those things knowledge and control resulting in a happier body and a happier you!