2 years.

It was an interesting day today. A day that we are going to have to face each year...whether we like it or not. I will never forget where I was, what I was wearing and who I was with when I heard the news of Sophie Rose Barton's passing. It came to be as a shock. I didn't want to believe it. It was so surreal. My first thought? Prayer. We needed to stop what we were doing and pray. So we did. We prayed for Sophie. Her family. Her friends. We prayed. Later that night, it really hit me as I read posts on her facebook page. Thousands of people were influenced by her at one point or another. For me? Sophie taught me how to live life. We grew up in the same stake. We went to Cottonwood Elementary, Olympus Jr. High and Olympus High School together. We did Clayton together. We toured to Colorado together. Sophie and I were never best friends but I did consider her a good friend. I would watch her and her sister Tessa walk down the halls. Hand in hand. Loving and laughing. It was quite the sight. Sophie sat behind me in seminary. She was there...everyday without fail. She would have her scriptures and journal open. She was a spiritual giant. I would silently watch Sophie at school and admire her so much. I never told her how cute her outfits always were, or how amazing her hair looked, or how much I adored her as a person. I wish I had. I would watch her walk down the halls and feel as though I was in the presence of a godess. She is unreal. 

Ever since Sophie passed away, I have felt her in my life on a daily basis. I was able to spend this afternoon with my sister Jessica who was with me when I found out Sophie had passed away. She was with me at every fireside during that horrible week. It felt right to spend the day with Jess. We cooked lunch and listened to Sophie's music. It was peaceful. We drove around Holladay. It was quiet. Peaceful. Different. White ribbons were tied on trees and mailboxes. People remember. They always will. I feel her in the wind. I went to see her grave today and a small breeze came over me and I knew that it was her. It was obvious. It was her telling me that she was okay and so happy. Sophie is doing things that none of us could ever dream of doing right now. Heaven is so lucky to have her. 

We all have open wounds. Those wounds will eventually turn into scars. Those scars remind us of the pain we once felt when it was once a wound. It reminds us that life was once hard and that we overcame a trial. That rugged line in your skin is life. Every time we run our fingers over the scar, we are reminded that we are strong. We were once weak, but we are now strong. When Soph passed away, we were all left with open wounds. Deep ones. Wounds that seemed would never heal. Wounds that hurt deep to a point where it felt like life would never be easy again. Through facing our fears and trials, those wounds have healed. We become stronger. I have become stronger since that fateful day 2 years ago.

Sophie will always be with us. She is here to stay. We WILL see her again. We WILL hear her sing. We WILL feel her warm hugs. It WILL happen. And I can't wait.

I love you Sophie Rose Barton. Thank you for being an incredible example to me. Thank you for teaching me to "feel the fear and do it anyway."

Tamales.

I have a pretty fun job.
Sometimes.
I do drive a lot and I can get pretty sick of it.
Gas prices seem to be in limbo.
It's hot today.
My AC doesn't help much.
My back is hurting.
Oops... there's an accident up ahead.
Stuck in traffic.
Driving is my job.

I guess it's not always like this.
The fun part of my job is being able to be out of the store.
Driving.
All by myself.
Blasting whatever I wanted to listen to without having someone change the track or station.
Having the window rolled down.
Wind surfing with my hand.
Sunglasses on.
It's summer time.
The joys of driving.

Today was a pretty good driving day.
I deliver to a place called DHI about twice a week.
The ladies there are my favorite.
I marketed to them so I get to take all of their deliveries.
On my way to DHI, there is a cute little mexican lady that sits on
the corner of the street selling homemade tamales.
$1.25 is all she asks for.
I would always tell myself to pick one up and help the cute lady out.
I saw her a few weeks ago and told myself, "I promise I will purchase a tamale next time."
I took my delivery and as luck would have it...
She was there!
I passed by and kept driving.
Then I remembered my promise.
I pulled a U-turn and pulled over by her stand.
She came right over.
Eyes filled with light.
A big smile on her face.
A menu in hand.

Pork.
Chicken.
Cheese.
$1.25


I ordered a cheese one.
Realizing she knew no english whatsoever.
I gathered my 9th grade spanish skills and tried to communicate with her.
Senor Thomas' class really paid off.

She pulled out a warm tamale from her cooler
and put it in a brown paper bag for me.
She gave it to me with a big smile on her face.
I gave her $1.25.
It was all the change I had in my wallet.
It was worth it.
I drove off and ate this homemade cheese tamale.
It was warm.
It was homemade.
It was delicious.

I'm so happy I kept such a simple promise.
I don't know the lady's name.
I don't know her background.
Maybe I'll get another tamale someday and learn her story.

So ya...
My job as a driver can be lame sometimes.
But today...
I was more than happy to have the job I have.
I get to discover and meet new people everyday.
I even got to enjoy a little afternoon snack!

In The Dark

Kind of how I'm feeling right now...

I love this song. 

It always gives me a little hope.

...

I'm about to fall asleep.
Oh the joy of being tired at 10:15 at night and being excited to go to bed.
I got thinking about some things that I am looking forward to.
I couldn't help but hop on my blog and post before they leave my head.
Here we go.

Things I am looking forward to the most right now:

Despicable Me 2... 

Having nephew Hurley home...

Synergy 2012 tour to Ecuador...

Clayton Dance Company...(the hope of teaching again)

Having these amazing people home!...

Dancing...

This movie...

More swimming...

4th of July...

More memories with my sister...

Having all 9 of us here....

Bucket List....Check!

Aub and I have a summer bucket list.
And all I can say is that we are on a roll with getting things checked off.
Now I have had a lot of summer to-do lists with a lot of friends.
Do we ever accomplish more than 6 of the items?...
Not really...
Aub and I have stuck to our list and we will finish it!
One of the items was to make American flag shorts.
We see them all over Pinterest.
We HAD to make them!
So we did.

Aubrey's favorite holiday is the 4th of July.
So we are going to make it extra awesome this year.
Treating it like Christmas.
Blasting patriotic music.
Fireworks.
We even have a Synergy performance on the special day.
And now we have the apparel to show we love America!
God Bless the USA!

By far my favorite American song!

Summer 2012.

It's really starting to feel like summer.
My summer classes are coming to an end and I couldn't be happier.
I started out my day with work.
It's weird being back to a fast paced store.
I got off a little early and headed to the pool with Terann...my roomie.
She's awesome!
Then miss T met up with us later.
It was super fun.
And hot.
I got burned but oh well!
I shall welcome a tan soon enough!

Love these girls.
And summer!!

Phoenix.

As you know...
I was able to help open the Phoenix store.
It was really fun and very rewarding.
I loved the feeling of being needed.
It was legit.
I had my own hotel room.
And Zupas took very good care of us!

Here are some pictures of the new store.
It's beautiful....

And the Utah crew that I went down with was so much fun to work with!

The Buried Life.

I've been working down in Arizona this past week and it's been great.

I've had some alone time and with that alone time I have:

Written an 8 page english paper.

Blasted my own music.

Slept with no noise in a family room.

Played sudoku.

Watched the Bachelorette.

Slept some more.

And started watching a new show.

...well it's not new....it's 2 years old.

But it's new to me.

The Buried Life.

For those who have never heard of it.

It's a show about 4 guys who have a bucket list.

Each episode is them crossing off an item.

It's pretty legit.

And the items are pretty insane.

...Ask out the girl of your dreams...

They did and they succeeded...

Taylor Swift.

...Get married in Vegas...

They did.

Now you will think this show is bizarre and trust me.

It is.

But then you find out there is such a special meaning as to why they do this.

For every item they cross off their list...they help someone else fulfill something 

they want to do before they die.

I found this last episode to be amazing.

Their item was to help deliver a baby.

They were mostly there for support.

It was amazing to see these 20ish year olds supporting this woman.

They were so sweet about being there for her and helping her and 

her husband out with the labor and delivery.

In the middle of the episode, they met a random girl on the street.

Her name was Queen.

Her and her mother were in hurricane Katrina.

They got split up.

Her mother got sick and ended up dying and was buried in Denver.

This girl had never been to her mother's grave sight to say goodbye.

These 4 boys got a job at a local restaurant for the day to raise

money to send Queen to Denver.

They succeeded.

Sent her off to help her find her mother.

They found her grave sight and it was amazing.

This girl just cried and cried.

They cried with her.

I cried with them.

This girl said something pretty amazing and simple...

"There's nothing like a mom."

She is right. 

There really is nothing like a mom.

I thought of my own mom and how amazing she is.

I couldn't stand the thought of losing her the way this girl

lost her own mother.

Not being able to say goodbye.

Not being able to attend her funeral.

Nothing.

It hurt me to think of that.

How lucky am I that I still have my mom around?

I love my mom.

I was truly inspired tonight.

This show is amazing.

Who would have thought 4 boys could make a huge

impact on not only this girl's life...but my own?

Thank you Ben, Duncan, Dave and Jonnie.

Arizona.

Let me just start out by saying that life is so great right now.
I have had the amazing opportunity to come down to Arizona
and help Zupas open a restaurant down here.
I feel legit.
Chad {Zupas catering director} informed me that I should feel honored
being asked to come down.
And I do.
I have been working 11 hour days so I am exhausted.
BUT...I'm making good money and it's been a really fun experience.

The people down here are really different.
Different personalities and life styles.
I've learned to just accept it.
The store down here is BEAUTIFUL.
Everything is brand new.
After working in the oldest store in the company for almost a year now {weird}...
it's nice to have some new things around.

Not only has it been extremely fun...but it's been a nice break.
I live in an apartment where EVERYONE and their dog come to hang out at.
Don't get me wrong... I LOVE it.
But there comes a time and place where I need some Annie time.
Not only Annie time...but QUIET time.
I have gotten it down here.
When I'm off work, I get to come back to my own hotel room and relax.
By myself.
No noise.
Just me.
I love it.
I do miss the roomies and my friends back at home.
But this has been exactly what I needed this week.
I'll be happy to go home and be back in warm...{not BLISTERING hot...like Arizona} Utah!
I'll miss this alone time.
But it was just enough time for me.

Good and Lousy.

So Aub and I were called a mean word today at the 7-Eleven.
Like....a really mean, no good, evil word.
A word you hear in the movies.
I've been called that word via text.
But never in person.
We didn't even do anything.
We sat in my car.
In shock.
Trying to figure out what the freak just happened.
Now I'm trying to work on giving people the benefit of the doubt...
There was NO benefit of the doubt right there.
I even tried saying, "She's just having bad day."
Nope.
Nada.
Zilch.

We drove back and sat outside with our hats on backwards and held onto our little slurpees.
In shock still.
Do we even look like that word?
I mean...we were in shorts, t-shirts and our hats were on backwards.
We were childish looking.
It really put a damper on our day.

Went to a musical.
A sweet old man behind us offered us his blanket to sit on.
We actually had one but weren't using it.
A feeling of relief hit me.
There are good people in this world.
There are lousy people in this world.
But overall....there are still more good people than lousy.

How amazing is is that ONE person can change or ruin your whole day?
But then again...how amazing is it that ONE person can turn your world around and make it better??
Life is still great everyone.
There is good.
Now I can sleep in peace knowing that
my day wasn't completely ruined by the lady
at the Sev who was having a bad day....

Saturday!

Clayton concert was last night.

For those of you who are aware of this particular day, 

you will come to the understanding that it  is very long. 

Started at 11 AM and ended at 9:30 PM.

I'm not gonna lie.

I went into the practice with a lousy attitude.

Mad that Synergy had to be there the whole time when we weren't even in the finale. 

I sat down with my best friend and we were both a little bitter.

I then walked up to the front of the auditorium and found a little down syndrome girl from "Starstruck"

sitting next to our director, Kim Clayton.

She sat with him and started at him wondering why he was paying attention to the group onstage and the sound system rather than looking at her and smiling.

She got his attention and smiled he did.

Laughed even.

It was then that I realized that this is the reason why we are here.

To smile.

To laugh.

To enjoy life.

This little girl sat with 6'7" D. Kim Clayton.

I feared the big teddy bear when I was her age. 

She was so brave to sit with him and take the time to get his attention and get him to smile!

My attitude for the whole day changed like that.

Synergy was told that we wouldn't start practicing for another hour or so.

What did we do?

We played games.

{Man I love this group}

We went to Cafe Rio.

{Again...I love this group}

Then we finally got to go on stage.

We had an energy that I've never felt before.

And it was even stronger during the actual concert.

I went home with Aub after practice.

Took a nap.

Got ready.

Returned back to Juan Diego.

"It's show time!"

I yelled as I walked in the dressing room.

{I've always wanted to say that}

The whole concert was amazing.

Synergy was amazing.

We even received a message on Facebook from Kim expressing 

his gratitude and encouraging us to keep it up.

After the show, 

Aub and I met up with our good friend Trent.

It was his birthday!

We got Island Flavor.

The famous green truck in Holladay.

First one of the summer!

It's here...

Happy Birthday to Trenton James English!

Went back to my house for the last shakes party with Clayton friends.

It was a good one.

It was just a good day.

Started out early.

Ended late.

Made the most of it.

Had a blast.

3 things that made this day so worth it.

Kim and that precious girl.

Spending all day with my bestie.

Coming home to my little Oscar.

.

I was told the other day that I don't blog enough.

Well I did drop off the face of the earth for a little bit there.

So that person was right.

Let's be real though.

I didn't have a laptop for a week so cut me some slack!

BUT...I'm back and ready to blog.

Life is amazing.

Life is pure.

Life is short.

Life is a gift.

I have learned this through changing my own life. 

I have learned to make the best of every situation.

I was driving home from work the other day ready to get home and get to Salt Lake.

I hit a bad traffic jam.

I hate traffic.

Especially when I am in a hurry to get somewhere.

Yeah I had somewhere to be, but for some reason, I decided to make the best of that jam.

I blasted my AC... for it was a hot day.

I turned up my stereo to Carrie Underwood... for I adore her.

I enjoyed my yummy banana, string cheese and diet coke... for I love all of the above.

I even took time to take a picture of my new headband...for I love it.

Make the best of every day people...

It's worth it.