Yesterday I sat on the couch thinking about all of the ways that I would like to improve myself.  I do this a lot, to tell you the truth.  I began (again) identifying my shortcomings and pondering ways to eradicate them.  This is probably a healthy thing to a degree, but I do it far too often and result in far too much discouragement. 

I told James I needed to go make a "Plan of Self-Improvement", because then I would feel like I had concrete direction from myself.  He responded, "Oh, like this one?  You start out in the Premortal Existence, you are born, you live your life on Earth doing great things and making mistakes and learning who you are, then you die, experience the Spirit World, resurrection, final judgment, and discover you are in one of God's 3 kingdoms of glory...preferably the Celestial one?"

I was quiet for a moment.  "....yeah, like that."

Lucky for me, someone reminded me yesterday that there is a plan for each of us.  It is the Plan of Salvation, the Plan of Happiness, really it is the Great Plan of Self-Improvement.  It is nice for me to know this and to think on it.  It brings me a good deal of peace.  Someone has a plan for me.

A chalk rendering of the Plan of Salvation, as done by Elder Gardner in Ukraine

Sometimes I'll run across things that make me really, really happy.

Love you, family.

a few things i love

 

1. The HUGENORMOUS cupcake James bought me after I saw Cupcake Wars for the first time and thought I would die without a cupcake :)

2. I asked my first graders to make a little card with a word and picture that has to do with something in February for our word wall.  This one made me really happy.

3. James and I took a little date night and saw Red Tails after grabbing a bite at State Street Grill.  Pretty tasty...who knew?

cookies and cocoa

One of the things that caused me a considerable amount of stress during our engagement was the planning of our wedding reception.  I stressed about the number of cookies we would need, how my crazy cake idea would turn out, whether or not James would die standing in the line.....

But 'twas all in vain, due the many wonderful wonderful people who stepped up to help me....and James, for being a good sport.  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful reception.  It certainly exceeded my expectations.  Thank you, everyone!

On December 22, 2011, James and I were married in the Mount Timpanogos temple.  This friendship.....courtship.......eternal relationship (do you remember that talk?) has been a long time in the making and we are both very happy to have arrived here.   And yet, it is as much an arrival at it is a departure.  We are embarking on new and exciting chapters and moments of our lives, discovering new things and refining ourselves, and we are happy to be together.

I've posted far too many pictures (my apologies!) showing the happy day.  The day went off perfectly without a hitch (well, except our own), and we couldn't feel more blessed.  I couldn't feel more grateful for Heavenly Father blessing me with tremendous and miraculous peace on this day. I also couldn't be more grateful to the many family members and friends who did (and still do) so much to help us along our way.  Thank you, all!

 

(please allow your imagination to add great amounts of snow to this picture....sheesh, looks like August!)

a friend shared these

they may or may not represent my current train of thought :)

you know what is the best?...

.

.