I will be 27 in one week. I know compared to the rest of the world, this is not old, but when my brother a few weeks ago said "can you believe how old we are?" I realized that he is linking me with him, and he's always been the older one. He's 5 years older than me, and so much farther than I am in life. He has 4 kids, a great wife, a house, etc. I just realized though that suddenly I'm in the same category for the most part. I am done with college, in a decent job that pays me a pretty decent wage, and I am no longer considered a baby out in the world. I am .... do I dare say this out loud? I am... *deep breath* 3 years away from 30.

OH... MY... GOSH.

This song has always been a favorite of mine, but I wanted you to read the lyrics. I feel this way sometimes when I realize how quickly time passes. 9 years ago I was standing at a podium, giving my high school graduation speech about how no matter where we go in life, we will always be connected to everyone somehow. Little did I know, the world of Facebook would prove that to be true! HA!  This John Mayer song entitled "Stop This Train" is dedicated to my never ending fear of one day being 45 and looking back at my life wondering how I got from 20-40 in the blink of an eye. There is nothing wrong with getting old... but there is something blissful and wonderful about being young. I happen to love it.

Lyrics are below the video if you don't want to watch the video while you listen...


Stop This Train - John Mayer
No I'm not color blind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind but...
I just can't sleep on this tonight
Stop this train I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly won't someone stop this train

Don't know how else to say it, don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't but honestly won't someone stop this train

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said help me understand
He said turn 68, you'll renegotiate
Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
Don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train

See once in a while when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'til you cry when you're driving away in the dark.

Singing stop this train I want to get off and go home again
I can't take this speed it's moving in
I know I can't
Cause now I see I'll never stop this train

The Good Samaritan

Happy Easter everyone! Today I was reminded of a story that happened 7 years ago. I forget about this story often, and from time to time someone reminds me of it in some way or another and I think about it for a little while. I have never written it in a journal or anything, and feel like it's about time I did.

When I was 20, I was dating someone who grew up in Idaho Falls, ID. We were up there for a 4th of July weekend and were hanging out with his family. We decided to take a day trip to Jackson Hole since it's just a couple of hours away, and buy fireworks from Wyoming, and walk around the town. For those of you who don't know, Jackson is a really cool city, and in the summer it is gorgeous there!  We headed there around lunch time and walked around the town, explored and got some food etc. A perfect summer day if you ask me.

As we were getting ready to leave it was getting dark, so we called his parents to let them know we'd be back right around the time we had planned. We started back and just as we got about 10 miles out of town, we got a flat tire. He said it would be no big deal, and got out to change the tire. He was out there for a while and when he got back in the car he was pretty upset. I asked him what was wrong and he said the wrench he uses to get his tire off is missing and we can't change the tire without it.

We got out and tried to call someone on our cell phones, but neither of us could get any reception at all. The service was cutting out since we were just about to enter a canyon. We walked a decent distance back toward town and still couldn't get any reception and by this time it was almost dark. The sun had already set and we didn't have any way to get help. We decided to try to flag someone down. It took about half an hour, and finally someone pulled over.

He seemed like he was in his late 20's or early 30's. And he quickly came to see what we needed. After explaining to him the situation, he checked to see if his wrench would fit our car... it didn't. Then they decided to search the trunk again, and in this process they started thinking the spare might be flat too. After this finding, he graciously offered to take us into town to see if we could get cell phone reception and possibly get someone from the mechanic shop to help. As we were driving in to town, he hands his cell phone to the guy I was dating, and said we could use it as much as we needed while he was with us.

Then after we call his parents and let them know the issue, we check the local mechanic, and they are closed for the next 3 days due to the holiday weekend. At this point we kind of feel like our only option is a tow truck, but that would be so expensive and we were poor college students. We decide to call his parents and see what they think we should do. After we talked to them and they figured out a solution for us,  we had to wait for them to get to Jackson to help us. We offered to take the guy to dinner for helping us, and he was grateful for our offer.

At dinner we started to talk to him all about where he was from, what he did, etc. He was very warm and friendly. He told he had recently recovered from a really bad lifestyle, and had attempted suicide before. One night he said he was getting ready to shoot himself, and was really at the end of his rope, and felt there was no hope for him. He said an "angel" appeared to him and told him that was not his path, and he needed to live and help people find God's path for them. He was very serious when he told us this.

Now, I don't know if an angel really appeared to him, or what really happened that night. But he was very different than the man he had described himself as previously being. He was very happy and giving, and he told us that's the way he had been since that day when his life was saved. He was now a member of a born-again Christian faith, and told us that if we were ever stuck there again we could come to one of their meetings. We talked to him for quite a while about what he was doing now, and how he was so different. He seemed to have a lot of faith in what he believed in and I can still remember how I wished for faith like that in my beliefs (at the time I had been in a longtime battle to find my faith in my religion).

After dinner we went to pay and found out he'd snuck payment to the waitress for the meal while he had "gone to the restroom". This guy was so selflessly charitable toward us. We kept trying to give him money for driving us around and helping us, but he refused. Then he dropped us off at a movie theater where we were planning to spend the rest of the time we had to wait for his parents to come help us. As we were getting out of the car he told us that charity was such a big part of life, and that we all needed to incorporate it into ours. Then if I remember right, he handed us a $20 and told us to have a good time at the movies (this may or may not have happened, the last part is kind of fuzzy in my memory, but I swear he paid for that too).

It's amazing to me that there are people out there that are so willing to help strangers in need. Sometimes I forget how much I have and how little others have. It makes me realize how selfish we all can be. I think I need to be more observant of how I can serve others, even those that are super close to me... that sometimes I forget could use a little bit of help every now and then.

I want to make sure I incorporate this attitude into my life as much as possible.

Have any of you ever had an experience where someone was extremely selfless, and came to your rescue? Let me know, I'd love to hear your stories. Please comment on this post if you would like to share.

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/04/09/lets-make-beautiful-music-together/

You must go here and click the squares... this is addicting. Space clears the screen. Best game ever!!!!

So this isn't a new song, but I recently found it through a friend on Facebook.... so it's new to me.

And this song makes me think of you, you know who you are. ICWUIGTSYFIM.... that will be the best day of 2011.

So... for a while now I've had a project in mind that I'd love to do. It's kind of a secret so I won't divulge too much about it, but I'd like to do some research every now and then and will need your help if you're willing. To give you an idea of what I'm looking for on this let me explain...

Heidi Montag's before picture is a gorgeous slender blonde beauty, and just because boys made fun of her, doesn't mean she needed to change! The tiny before shot at the bottom of this cover is how she really was. Beautiful and Real.

I feel like we are so bombarded by the media with images of women that are not realistic. They are all enhanced in some way, maybe by photoshop, maybe by a team of stylists, and maybe the characters they are portraying are not realistic either... some people don't understand why this is so important to me, but some of you will and I hope you'll help me.

I am trying to give people a realistic perception on what makes a woman REAL. My rant over Kesha's concert and music in a previous post was just a taste of what I feel about women in the media, and how it effects the rest of our society. Also I want to attack our desensitization and wake us all up to the fact that we have become victims of our society. Every where I look these days women are getting plastic surgery. There are shows on TV dedicated just to showing the life of a plastic surgeon and his cosmetic enhancement capers. And most of us don't even see it. I am guilty of this a lot too!

It's funny how you can't really make it big anymore in the media's realm unless you can sell sex. Now I'm not attacking the act of sex, or the fact that it's attractive to people. It is SUPPOSED to be attractive to people, that is the way we humans were designed. I am attacking the fact that our society's constant image of women in the media is not realistic. I want to remind people of how amazing women in real life actually are, and how much we women have in us that is more valuable than the billion dollar industries that sell an image that is completely and utterly false.

So, how can you help me? I want comments people. LOTS and LOTS of comments on this post. Tell me what your idea of a real woman is, or tell me about a woman you know that is amazing, or tell me what you love about yourself if you are a woman... (those are just some basic ideas). Anything you want to post on here about this will be a major help to me, and my "secret" project. I will tell you all one day what it is, but until it is actually in the works, it will be my little private dream. I want to protect it so I can make it come to life.

Please help me with this, it would mean the world to me. I love hearing other people's opinions, views, etc. So with that being said... goodnight, and I can't wait to read all of your thoughts on what makes women amazing!

And here is a video that I recently found that makes me feel motivated on this topic...

Day 09 - A song with a great video. I don't really have to explain why this is a great video. 

Holy music video posts! Get used to it, there will be 30 videos when all is said and done with this music posting challenge. 


My next music post is supposed to be my favorite Beatles or Rolling Stones song.  I've just always loved this song since I very first heard it when I was a kid. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong music generation. :) 







The 30 days of music challenge is also asking for my favorite cover. This song is by my favorite artist Sara Bareilles. This is the ending credits scene to her Live From the Fillmore Concert DVD which I happen to own because... I am in love with her, duh!  She is doing a cover to Otis Redding's - Dock of the Bay. And I must add... she is doing it amazingly! Girl has talent!

So... the next music posts are supposed to be a song that relaxes me, and a driving track. You pick which one you listen to first.

This driving track is one I fell in love with last year, and have a fond memory of driving through a canyon in northern Utah toward bear lake on a perfect summer night, with the sunroof open, the windows down, my friend Tanner flooring the gas pedal, and all of us rocking out to the full volume of this song.

Crank it up!


A song that relaxes me is this one... I always feel super calm when I play it on the piano, and when I hear it. I found this video of it on Youtube, accompanied with this violinist, it is quite possibly the prettiest version of it I've heard. Musical genius has always really impressed me, and he is certainly a musical genius on that violin. Ahhhh sweet relaxation...

So... a few things to talk about today.

Numero UNO and the most important ever? I GOT TO SKYPE WITH MR. AWESOME!!!!! So basically we had our first date in over 2 months last night. I have to tell you, whoever invented video chatting was a genius because phone calls are amazing, and Alexander Graham Bell deserves an amazing amount of credit there, but seeing his face while he talked to me made it feel like we were in the same room! (despite being able to touch him of course.) It was funny, I got all nervous at first when the video popped up, like it was our first date again. I hadn't seen him for 68 days...(who's counting?!)

So I tried to find an awesome picture of an angel, but the internet just showed me bikini girls with wings. LAME.

I can't wait to start our regular Skype sessions. I can't believe how military families and military girlfriends handled the distance before the internet. If the guys were sent foreign, they probably could only receive letters and those would probably come weeks after they were written. I'm so grateful for modern inventions that allow us to sit in a chair in opposite ends of the country (and the world for some people!) and talk to each other like we're in the same room. Gosh he looked so good when he was talking to me!

SKYPE you are an angel sent from heaven!!!


And next we have some music posts... since I like sharing music. Are you ready? There are 4 videos. Hope you are in the mood for some randoms...

Day 5 is to post a song that reminds me of someone. This song always reminds me of... Mr. Awesome. He introduced me to this band last fall, and originally tried to get me to like them a couple years ago, but I guess I'm stubborn and didn't take his first request. (Shame on me!) This song always makes me think of him. I love the lyrics and halfway through when it speeds up it's a lot of fun!



Day 6's song is supposed to be a song that reminds me of somewhere. This particular song reminds me of when Alia and I were on the overnight train from Florence, Italy to Paris, France and had just worked our way into a private sleeper car instead of the jam-packed-like-sardines one with the creepy guys from India who kept speaking Indian and staring at us like they had a plan and every now and then we'd catch the word "English". We were loving Salvatore the 26 year old train worker from Naples who saved us from that room! So after he left us alone we had an impromptu dance party to this particular song on Alia's iTouch.



Day 7 is to post a song that reminds you of a certain event. When my family went to Yellowstone when we were little kids, our family was much smaller than it is now. It was just my mom, my 2 older brothers and me. We drove to Yellowstone from SLC and camped a few times, and I remember hearing this song over and over and over (actually the whole tape over and over). I guess it was one of the only tapes we brought in the car with us. But I will always have a soft spot for the B52's Cosmic Thing album because of it.



Day 8 is a song I know all the words to. Shoop by Salt N Pepa... no idea why I could memorize this song, but OH I love it. I memorized it in high school and have still not forgotten most of it. Oh and look they were on Tyra! Yeah! hahahaha... Love how Tyra talks about Frenemies... she's a spaz. I can't wait to find out the tallies from the Frenemies Face Off... OMG!

So for Day 2 of the music challenge it said to post my least favorite song, but well quite frankly I can't support that girl in anything she does, and I refuse to desecrate my blog with her video/music. So... just know that part of the words are "blah blah blah".

Day 4 is a song that makes me sad. Why am I doing these out of order you ask? Well I didn't want you to leave on a sad note. So I put the Day 3 post of the happy song last. :) You're welcome! This song is really sad, and the video really tugs on my heart strings. Brad Paisley is an excellent song writer.



Day 3 is a song that makes me happy. This song has been on my "feel good" playlist for years. Everytime I hear it, the lyrics always seem to directly apply to me. No matter when I hear it if I really crank it up I will feel better. I first heard this song my senior year of high school and immediately went and bought the cd. Here it is 10 years later and I'm still in love with it! The original video is on Youtube but I chose this so you could read the lyrics if you wanted to.

So I'm a music-aholic... and I found a 30 days of music blog posting thing, similar to 30 days of photos that  I just finished. Since this is my blog I'm going to do that, and entertain with my musical genius. Or... maybe you'll stop reading this blog, and then either way I still will be posting what I want! :)

The first posted song is supposed to be my favorite song but I don't have just ONE favorite. (Does anyone?) I will choose.... hmmmm.... hurrmmm... probably one of my very favorite oldies songs. This song will always be responsible for putting me in a good mood.

My Girl - The Temptations

Nope I'm not going to talk about that old martial arts movie... (thanks to my step dad I know that movie exists) I'm going to gush about something else equally as awesome and something that is seriously the best. Are you ready? Here it comes...




2 things... 
A - We can text
B - We can call
C - If I miss his call I can call him back!
D - We can Skype soon


(Ok that was 4 things... but who's really counting?) It's awesome. Seriously. Who knew one day I'd be ecstatic about phone communication with a guy? Life is fun!