This Couple Needs Your Help!!!

ATTENTION Friends, Family, and Anyone out there that is listening!

This couple has been trying to have kids now for five years.  Unfortunately, their luck has not been so good.  They are looking into getting InVitro fertilization, which will give them a chance to finally bring a little one into the world.  Who wouldn't want that?  

As a woman who is 26 and not married (seems pretty normal these days, but in the LDS culture that's like, SO old!)  I understand what it's like to want to move onto the next stage in life, to try and try over again, and yet you get no results.  It's depressing, its like you are stuck in a rut, and oftentimes a lot of people just don't understand so you are kind of experiencing these feelings on your own.

I can imagine that not being able to have a baby is a very similar, if not even more poignant feeling.  As women, and as human beings, we have an innate yearning to nurture one of our own.  

So what my friend Sarah is doing is helping to put on a FUNDRAISER to raise money for this couple so they can have a shot at having kids.  If you have any services or items to auction off, or just want to send them some money, email Sarah at Jakesbigsis@gmail.com....or you can contact her on facebook (Sarah Ann Purvis Norton) .  There's even a link on their blog that allows you to donate!  (contact Sarah if you want to donate a service or item for the auction)

Please, ANYthing helps!!!  

The Auction will be held on August 14th in Provo, Utah.  So contact her ASAP!   Thanks so much!!! 

Hilarious!

I found this website called "unsolicited dating advice"..oh my gosh SO FREAKIN HILARIOUS!

There are actually some good things in there, you should check it out! I'll give you some previews:

Anyway, I am not posting them all, but this came from a post called "Why Parents Dont Understand How We Date"

OH this one is funny too: 

How To Avoid Crappy Blind Dates

(That one was the first one I read, and by far the funniest I've seen!)  

Why Do I Believe?

I had this dream last night about my dad.  I love my dad and he is a great father to me.  I really have been blessed with good parents.

I'll back up just a little bit to give a little bit of information.  My grandma is a stalwart and very active Latter-day Saint.  She raised all of her kids in that religion, but my mom decided to not really grab ahold of it and made a different path for herself.  My mom married my dad, who at the time was basically ex-Catholic and nothing else. He then became a Buddhist after they divorced, but never really practiced it, and one day he told me, "Shayna, do not talk to me about your religion."  I wish at that time I would have understood the greater purpose of it.   I am not sure what happened..but anyway...This is becoming a very long story.  

Back to my dream--in my dream, he had realized that what I had was a special gem--not just a gem--but truth.  His eyes were big and absorbent.   He asked me why I believed in what I believed in.  It hit me when I woke up--WHY do I believe in what I believe in?  I had to think about it---honestly, deeply, seriously.  

I believe in what I believe in because it gives me hope.  It gives me a purpose.  Without belief in God, without belief in a greater purpose of this life, without the belief that after we are all gone I can be with my family forever, without all that hard stuff we have to deal with in this life--at least without the pain of unknowing, not understanding--with the knowledge that I have that I came from a much greater, expansive, perfect and peaceful and moving and building and continuous foreverness world before I even got here, before I came to this limited, tumultuous, wild, rocky place where I often feel alone, fragile, weak, crumbled--well, I don't know if I could survive or if I would want to.  

Then I realized, yeah, I am fragile, weak, and alone--I'm not with God anymore.  I'm not in a place where things are forever--its like a temporary place, where anything could happen, anything could rip the world apart--and I can't get back to God on my own because He is so perfect--I would melt in His presence--I couldn't stand it, yet I long for it so much--and He longs for it, too--so He made a way for me, imperfect as I am, to come back Home.  

Oh how much I owe my Brother, the One person who was perfect enough to pay my price to get back there.  And with the perfect love of a Father, and of a Brother, all He asks us for us to be sincere, to follow His rules--which actually make us HAPPIER...all He asks us for us to do those things that make us happy, essentially--and to accept that ticket back home given to us by a very generous Benefactor, a ticket we would never have the ability to pay on our own.  And He created this journey for us so that we could learn and become more like Him--what a perfect Father we have.  Because, how could we gain a more perfect, deeper understanding without experiencing the pain of being away, the pain of this world and the pain of not being able to live with God--and the pain before we even got here of the lack of knowledge and maturity that comes from being on our own and knowing the difference between good and bad, between bitter and sweet.  

I hope this wasn't too much for you, but I just had to share it, as it has been on my mind a lot.  :)  Back to regular programming :)  

"Can you move?"..."Only my lips."

This week our good friend and old roommate Becky came to visit us.  She is a doll, through and through.  I love her excitement, her warmth, her genuine care for those around her.  She is going to make a great mom in 8 months!  It's really special seeing the women you care about as they grow and advance into new and sometimes scary but oh-so-beautiful segments of life.  So This is the chronicles of the visit of Becky, and the reuniting of old roommates!  Let it begin!

We had to take a picture with Keith in it..he is a trooper for being with us during Ladies Night.  

  

Becky, Shayna, Kleresa, Ashley--Becky and Ashley are just weeks apart in their due date! How cute! (Can I say how much I love Ashley, too?  I always feel like we can connect, I really was blessed with some great roommates--not just roommates, but friends.  Thanks for your influence on me, ladies, I look up to you in so many ways, and I really mean it.  :)  I'm so glad I know you!

Event of the night:  Burger Supreme followed by the DOLLAR MOVIE!  YEAH!  We went and saw "Letters to Juliet"--it was so cute--SO cute.  Highly recommended!  

Some more LOVELY ladies of the evening!!  Sara, Alicia, and Eryn.  Another three amazing women--gosh how did I get so blessed.  I'm so glad to have such fun friends that keep me going!  (Sara and I decided we wanted to be wedding planners together! ;)  )

This is a GREAT example of Excedrin ;)  She used to come home and have these huge stories to tell at 300 MPH...and she had that face going the whole time, with some seriously animated expressions! ha!

Awww cute!

Hey thats the first time I"m actually taller than someone in a picture! Thanks girlie! ;)  (Ashley, yours, Sara, Erin, Alicia, Sara, Kleresa, Becky)

More Adventures yet to come! 

Those Pictures No One Wants Broadcasted....

OH, come on sillies, did you actually think I would put bad pictures up? It's not possible with this crew!!

Monday night we had a stake FHE..they treated us so well! Gandolfo's for dinner, followed by a free ticket into SEVEN PEAKS!!!! I've always wanted to go, and where I work I can hear all the screams and loudspeaker fun and blasting music...its pure torture!! I'm so glad we got to go!!  (after 7 years of Utah you would think I would have gone by now!)  Oh it was so much fun!!

 HA those guys crack me up......

I look like a freakin amazon with those legs..but whatever...

We went to Arctic Circle afterwords...another first for me..and this was taken backwards, I'm pretty impressed.

And we MAY have squashed 7 people in one car......

That MAY have been Sara trying to find a place for her head since she was in the middle and we didn't want cops to catch us..

Oh fun with the ladies on the lawn.  Could it have been a better night??  (maybe...if Alicia would have put her leg up instead of her arm....but, that made it even funnier.  So way to be unique, alicia. :)   Notice I didnt put up that one picture....he he he)

OH what a fun group of girls!

This was one of the first nights I actually got to hang out with people.....I finally get to learn how to be social again!  haha!  

Baby, Why Don't We Just Dance?

My mom has these dreams sometimes, speaking of dreams.  She had a dream about a year ago that she told me about and gave me pretty deep description of today!  All of her kids were grown and raising families of their own.  My sister had a sweet daughter and was pregnant again (which I would NOT be surprised if she had a ton), my brother had a daughter as well, and I had a son that was "mischevious".  Ha....Where would he get THAT from???  

But this is my favorite part.  She said, "Your husband was handsome and muscle bound, but a little bit nerdy.  He was very sweet though, and I loved him a lot and he loved me too.  We got along really well.  He came from somewhere far and you did not meet him in Utah.  I felt like you met him away, or travelling or something.  He was 'olive' but not really really dark, and his hair was (dark, dark brown), he wore glasses but only sometimes, like he didn't need them all the time. He was about (your brother's) height or a bit taller.  And very friendly and outgoing. Lots of smiling, and it came as a surprise to you--this relationship.  But your relationship was amazing and so was he!"  

Sweet, mom, thats what I like to hear!! So, anyone want to go on a trip to Italy??!!!!  ;)  

I'm sure he will be a troubadour....I can feel it in my bones.  With big puffy orange sleeves (after all, I met him while travelling right???  Don't all foreigners wear stuff like that?)  Standing by some silo in the grapefield...(his little Italian guitar thing is hiding behind that silo, because he likes to pop out at travellers and sing songs to them.)   

Gone Brain My Has Where????

Do you ever have the idea that maybe you are a little bit weird, a little bit off, a little bit different from everyone else around you?  Like maybe you have some kind of a malfunctioning brain or something?  Good, I thought I was the only one! ha

Last night as I was about to go to sleep, or trying to force myself to sleep since 10:30 is pretty early for me (though I have to get up at 5:30 for work), my brain was set into motion.  There I was, lying on my bed (which is right by my window).  I see lights from a car pulling out and shining into my room as the car turns out of the parking lot.  The muppets come to mind "Meeeep.....Meeeeeep....." along with test tubes and big googley eyes and lab coats.  Then come the thoughts of my grandma (random?  well, I'll explain.  Even though I'm 26 I still get scared in the dark--so when I look around my room and see weird things, cause stuff looks weird in the dark, I think about my home, because I always felt safe and secure there, and with home comes Grandma, who really sets that tone of home.)  When Grandma and the Muppets start swirling around in my head, my brain starts coming up with really weird word combinations, and keeps repeating them over and over again, along with the "meep meep"'s, it was like a full on orchestra of words and pictures and meep-meeps, and swirling scary things in the dark, and sun and friends and work and running (cause I've been doing that lately), and my dad (probably because I miss him and my whole family haha) and my sisters and my mom and the temple and this BOOK I am reading and all the feelings associated with it.....

Man, just crawl into that brain and try to sleep. HA!  Sometimes I wonder.........  :)

My Moom

I love my family...if it weren't for them I would definitely take life WAY too seriously.  That is my moom in the middle. I call her moom because my sister spelled mom wrong in a text message ("moom") and it just stuck.  Why do I love my mom?  Well, because she loves everyone around her so much.  It doesn't matter who you are, she loves you.  And I get to escort her through the temple in ...lets see.....18 days! AH! Way to go Moom!  YEAAHH!!!!  (And Courtney, too!  in 20 days!! How EXCITING!!!)