This is the only photo we took of us on our engagement anniversary date. We're lame photographers.

Well, I've been inactive on this blog for most of this month. It's been a busy few weeks! We spent the Independence Day holiday weekend with both of our families, and had a blast. That week we hit up the small town parade where my parents live, watched the firework show on the runway of the Cedar City airport, went to Brian Head to an arts festival (and got a really awesome cheap print of a Navajo painter's work), made a couple special trips to Brad's to get taquitos with cheese (if you've never had taquitos in Southern Utah, you are missing out!), rode the ski lifts up to the top of the mountains to cool off from the 100 degree weather, spent a day at a cabin, and finished the weekend with Sunday dinner at my parents' house. All in all a great Independence week celebration!

I have been so busy with work that I haven't had a chance to post much. I worked days and nights all last week trying to do some international work for our office. It's pretty exciting branching out to places we've never been. I am happy to add work like that to my ever-growing resume even if I pretty much wore myself out getting it all done!

The week before, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary from getting engaged. I am so happy I married this guy. Thanks for proposing on a Friday the 13th! Some would say that means we'll have bad luck, I just say, it's up to us to make our own good luck!

To celebrate this monumental occasion in our lives, we redid our engagement date except one part of it. We hit up Barnes and Noble where we first met on our first date, bought books, and ate at the same restaurant. The only thing we didn't redo was the Thanksgiving Point gardens. It was raining hard, just like it was when we got engaged.

I have some really exciting news I want to share (it's part of the reason I've been avoiding my blog), but you all just have to wait another week until it's a for sure thing and I can talk about it. Until then, enjoy these pictures from our fun Independence holiday week. It was so nice having a 5 day weekend!

Parade Pair

Where we watched the firework show.

On the way down. Brian Head chairlift.

Incredible view of the area. Brian Head chairlift.

Aren't we a pair of cute feet? Brian Head chairlift.

Daisies everywhere at 11,000 feet. Brian Head.

Where the Sidewalk Ends. A walk around my hometown.

My favorite picture - My sis-in-law took it. My mom is an excellent grandma.

Cabin scenery.

Cabin Scenery.

Cabin scenery.

Taken near Meadow, UT. Utah sure is beautiful sometimes.

One more thing... My mom had another clean MRI! I am so grateful for miracles. She has worked very hard through all her treatments and is being rewarded for it. I couldn't be any happier right now about this! I swear this is a great month we're in so far. I'm just full of great news and fun things happening.

Whew! I think I covered everything I wanted to write about!

Sara Bareilles' new album came out today, I've been anxiously anticipating this date for a month now ever since I pre-ordered my own copy! I do this every year because, well... I'm a dork for Sara Bareilles. I get chills when she performs her big ballads, and I rock out to her uptempo stuff. The girl is always on pitch and just an artist through and through. I found this Elton John cover last night on the Vevo Youtube page... and I melted into a pile of goo after hearing it. So much so that I sent the link to Facebook and my mom, and added it to my favorite videos playlist.

I hope you melt into a pile of goo when you hear it too.

Sara Bareilles - cover of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

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Tonight I feel very reflective, contemplative, inquisitive and explorative. I know, it's a lot. This happens on occasion. I've been thinking a lot about what makes each of us important, valuable, beautiful, and of great worth?

Is it our religious beliefs or lack thereof? Is it our talents, or lack thereof? Is it our ability to work hard, or not work at all? Is it having this hair style and these clothes, or not caring at all what anyone is wearing or who made what? Is it saying these things, or saying what you're not supposed to?

I think a lot about this lately, and I can only answer those questions this way... you are important because you are. You are valuable because you are.
You are.

I wonder often how my mom feels when she looks in the mirror and doesn't see the person she has known, but sees a new form of herself she never expected to see. Hairless, fatigued, and whatever else she feels. But that's not her... she is the strongest person I know and every time I see or think of her, I am reminded of what amazing stock I came from. Her life is what makes her, well, her. Your life is what makes you, well, you.

Sometimes it seems as if our world is designed to wreck us, but there are so many beautiful things out there that can keep that from happening. One of my favorite quotes that I've had since I was 16 (that wretched time of life when fitting in is all that seems to matter) was perfectly said by E. E. Cummings:

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you like everyone else, is the hardest battle you can fight--never stop fighting."

This couldn't be more relevant to me than it is now. I know this is the transcendentalist in me talking, but I don't see the point in being another way. People are all inherently good, some have just forgotten their value, or how to be the good that they were.  There are so many different types of people in this world, and when I stop and think about all the cultures, and appearances, and colors, and dialects... it all just makes me feel grateful. Grateful that I can be here with the opportunity to experience all of this beautiful diversity. We are all valuable because we were all created, every single one of us.

Who can really say whether art isn't art? Therefore, who can really say whether beauty isn't beauty or whether something isn't valuable?