Only Thing...

Sometimes the only thing that gives me peace and healing is reading the Book of Mormon.

Answered...

Heavenly Father listens to prayers.
I know it.
Have I ever questioned whether or not He's there?
Yes.
Has it ever led me down a nasty road?
Yes.
But am I finding my way back to Him?
Yes.

Life will throw rocks at you.
Life will give you people who may break your heart.
Life can be hard.

However...

Life will throw rocks at you...throw them back with courage.
Life will give you people who may break your heart...kill them with kindness.
Life can be hard...but it will be so worth it.

I know through experience that the Lord encourages us to do better in life.
He is our biggest cheerleader.
Do Him a favor.
Make him proud.

I know through experience that by choosing to live right,
the we will be blessed.

Yes.
Heavenly Father is on the other side listening.
Yes.
He cries with me.
Yes.
He laughs with me.
Yes.
He loves me.

Prayers are answered.
In the most bizarre way.

Mama Mia...

Aub and I take the shuttle together to campus.
It's rare when we are both on it when our dear friend, Ely, (Fez) is on it too.
We jammed today to Hit Me Baby One More Time.
We agreed to watch Mama Mia with him tonight.
Fez loves movies.
He comes over a lot to ask us to watch movies with him
and it's usually bad timing...
But tonight, Aub and I were open.
9:30 rolls around and Aub and I were both a little tired.
Doorbell rings.
It's Fez.
Time for out movie night!
Fez brought his friends.

Teddyursa, Mankey and Dragonite.
We had to do the sing-a-long option of course!
Turned out to be a fun night with our fear friend Fez!

**Personal wish: I wish my life was a musical. I wish that I could break out in song in the middle of Orem and have everyone around me conveniently know the music and choreography. Life would be a lot more exciting.**

Amazing.

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”

Valen-time's Day!

This year's Valentine's Day was one to remember!

Trent came down in the morning with some sad news.

The date he had planned fell through.

So off to iHop we went for breakfast!

On our way out of iHop,

I thought to myself, 

"Aubrey's Valentine is on his mission...let's celebrate and do something for her!"

Trent was all for it.

We went to Walmart to find some goodies for Aubrey.

The first thing we found was a princess gift bag.

We decided to make our surprise for her Disney Princess themed.

The more stuff we got, the more excited we got.

Then we went over to the Disney store at the mall.

We walked out of the store with this:

I love Belle.

I love this doll.

Thank you Trent!!

We went back to my apartment and set up Aubrey's surprise.

We both were soooo excited about it that we went all out.

Lunch time.

Yummy Panda!

Then off to pick up Aubrey from school.

Us 3 went to see The Vow.

Sold out.

Duh!

Valentine's Day!

So we went to the dollar store with Aub to pick out some fun things for her package for Addison.

Then we got dinner at Zupas.

We rushed home so Aubrey could see her surprise!

This: 

A singing bee stuffed animal.

A rose.

Sunny-D.

Princess window stickers on her poster.

A princess mail bow full of princess Valentine's with notes on them from me and Trent.

Reese's.

Junior Mints. (Her favorite candy)

A Toy Story card.

Topped off with lights around it all!

It was so much fun to see her reaction!

I LOVE surprising people.

I LOVE their reactions.

I LOVE that feeling I get that I've made someone that happy.

We ended the night with watching Princess and the Frog and reading scriptures.

Valentine's Day was perfect this year. 

I loved having Aub join us.

I loved having my best friends with me that day.

Happy Valen-time's Day!!...As Aub and I would say :)

 

Speechless...

Most amazing thing ever....

THIS!!!!

Beautiful song.

Beautiful Taylor

Beautiful dress.

No make up.

Flawless.

I literally got the chills.

Uke life away...

For Christmas, Aubrey got me a Ukulele.
I have 3 cousins that play so we like to jam together whenever I'm in town.
Aub granted me my secret wish.
A uke!
Mine was defected...so she called in and asked for exchange for a new one.
They said, "Oh just keep that one! We'll send you another one for free!"
FREE??? Okay!
We ended up getting mine fixed.
So what was once just one uke...turned into 2!
Aubrey and I have decided to dedicate Friday's to our Uke's.
Zooey and
Joseph Gordon.
After class, we had some time to kill before heading up to Salt Lake.
Why not uke life away for the time being?
It was a sunny day and it was warm!!
We took my laptop outside along with our ukes and sat down on the sidewalk and played.
We made friends and people passed by.
I love Friday's now.
Uke time with Aubs and Synergy!
Thanks for making my Friday afternoon so much fun Aubbie!

Although the night ended a little rough for me,
I have learned to rely on the Savior when times get hard.

Day of Blessings...

"Where much is given...much is required."

I love this saying....especially today. 

Today at work, I was stressing about money and not working enough to make it. 

Synergy is costing me and my parents a lot of money.

So work has been more stressful that usual.

Today, I received an email from D. Kim Clayton.

Director of Clayton Productions.

Long story short...blessings were received.

An international foundation donated a great deal of money towards Synergy.

$1,300 is now off of my back.

I have been working hard to pay my parents back.

They have been so great to help me pay for Synergy this year, 

but inside...I want to pay for it all myself.

I WILL pay for it all myself.

As I read that email, I gasped and cupped my hand over my mouth.

Phone calls were made to family and friends.

Jessica even called me right after receiving the email just to catch up.

She has this sisterly sense.

I couldn't help but cry as I read the email over and over again.

This is a huge blessing for not only me, but for every single member of Synergy.

Because I received such an amazing donation, it makes me want to push even harder.

It makes me want to put my whole heart and soul into Synergy 2012.

Rehearsals are 6 hours long.

They are tiring and hard at times.

It is all worth it.

I've done this before.

I'll do it again.

I express a large amount of gratitude to that foundation who was so kind and generous to help us all out.

I have found that by living your life in such a way that draws you unto Christ, keeps you close to the spirit and just being obedient, that you will receive multiple blessings.

It makes the hard things in life so worth living for.

Tears were shed.

Smiles were present.

And hugs were given. (thank you Aubrey)

I am a happy and grateful girl.

I am blessed and filled with joy.

THANK YOU.

P.S. Nothing is better than coming home from work to a huge hug from your roommate and having her say, "I just love you Ann!" I love YOU Aubrey! I have the best roommate ever!

Chili's...and...WINNING!

After a day of studying for a test,
I needed a break.
Scooter (Aubrey's Best Cousin Friend) was studying with me and we got a little distracted.
SNL skits are LEGIT!
IRONIC when you both laugh at the same jokes.
3 of my friends from a class last semester and I had made plans to go out to dinner tonight.
I invited Scott to come.
I thought Aubrey had to go to a Relief Society meeting tonight and I was bummed that she wouldn't be able to come.
Because stuff like this isn't fun unless Aub comes!
She got home from class and we told her we were going to Chili's for dinner.
Turns out, she didn't have to go to the meeting....so she came!!
The 6 of us met at Chili's.
Aubrey, me, Scooter, Jake, Matt and Jen.
2 for $20?
Okay!
We overloaded on appetizers which made it difficult to dig into our entrees.
LEFT OVERS!!
The waiter came over asking us if we were interested in dessert.
My reaction?
(Pointing at Aubrey)..."It's her birthday today!"
He didn't buy it.
BUT.
He gave her an ice cream sundae anyways!

We said farewell to our friends and rushed home.
Sweats were on in a jiffy.
The TV was turned on.
BACHELOR TIME!!!
We hate Courtney.
She is stupid.
"WINNING!" is the only word she knows.

Scooter was a trooper to sit through an hour and a half of such a show!
Good man.
Surprise visit by Paul ad Troy!
They joined us.
Such manly men!
Bachelor haters....back off!

Ya....it was a really good day!
Full of blessings, studying, SNL, Chili's, good looking waiters and Bachelor drama.
Good night.
Sleep tight.

Concert of angels...

Today was an incredible day.
After a lot of frustration, KSL ads, phone calls and texts,
Trent, Aubrey and I were able to get tickets to the Parachute concert.
Parachute is one of Trent's favorite bands.
He was stoked.
Tessa Barton and her band were opening for them.
Aubrey and I were stoked.
It was the best of both worlds.

Parachute was awesome!
I recognized a few of their songs.
They know how to put on a show!

Now rewinding to the pre-show.
I love watching Tessa perform.
Ever since her sweet sister Sophie passed away, I see so much of Sophie through Tessa.
I used to perform with Sophie in a singing and dancing group and I saw so much passion in her when she performed.
That passion shows through Tessa now.

"I want you to think of the most beautiful girl. She is tall. Has blonde hair and has an amazing voice...she is my sister Sophie Rose."
-Tessa Barton

Tessa performed a number called, "Walk With Me"
This is a song that her and Soph wrote together.
In The Venue is a loud joint but throughout this particular song, the audience was dead silent.
We all stood and listened to Tess perform this song.
It was Tessa.
Her guitar.
And Sophie's sweet spirit.
All on one single stage.
The power and spirit in the room was overwhelming.

This is a video that Tessa and her brothers made for Sophie on her birthday.
I've watched it 3 different times.
All 3 times of watching it have led me to tears.
Tessa is so strong.
Chas is so strong.
Luke is so strong.
The whole Barton family is so strong.

Keep singing through Tessa Sophie....
We all love hearing both of you sing.

Thought of the Day...

"When life gets too hard to stand...kneel."

A Dream That You Wish...

I love having dreams.
I love working hard in life in order to reach those dreams.
It is hard when you are so excited for a dream of yours...
but not everyone else is.
When that happens, I push harder.
I focus on what ANNIE wants.
Not what others want.
This is what I want.
This is what I've worked my whole life for.
My dream.
All of that sweat, blood, tears, injuries and money will go towards this.
My dream.
It will take a lot of hard work to reach.
My dream.