The I LOVE list

Clearly there are FAR more things to love than to hate so here is the....

"I LOVE LIST"

1. Soup in a bread bowl

2. My electric blanket on my bed in the winter

3. Singing in the car with the windows down on a sunny day to a favorite song

4. BBQs

5. Laying on warm cement after swimming. Lizard time

6. Making smores

7. Warm robe after the shower

8. Dancing

9. Feeling in shape

10. Shakes with chunks of your favorite candy or fruit

11. Muddy buddies

12. Massages

13. Bubble baths

14. Fireworks

15. The first kiss

16. Warm chocolate chip cookies

17. Laughing so hard you cry

18. New clothes

19. Cake batter, brownie batter, cookie batter

20. Running, sleeping or swimming at the beach

21. Disneyland

22. Bridal showers

23. Hot tubs

24. Water-Fiji for me!

25. Hawaii

26. Chocolate covered strawberries

27. Snowboarding then eating Chili in the lodge. Driving home with the heater on and a good song.

28. The smell of fresh bread out of the oven

29. Getting your hair done and you love it

30. Thanksgiving leftovers

31. "Once" with Ramon (warm bread with avocado and herbal tea in his little house by the small heater when it's freezing outside...DIE FOR THIS!!)

32. The feeling after doing Bikram yoga or running a race...post shower

33. Warm roast beef and mashed potatoes and rolls after fast Sunday

34. After laying in the sun all day, showering and getting dressed up

35. Feeling the spirit

36. Free samples

37. Traveling

38. Warm home made cinnamon rolls

39. Baptism days of converts

40. Weddings

41. Road trips

42. Conference weekend

43. Telling stories

44. Lunch or dinner with best friends and laughing so hard about old memories

45. Serving others and making their day

46. My bed

47. Cereal

48. Boating on a sunny day

49. Cuddling (cozin up)

50. BEING WITH THE PEOPLE I LOVE

I am making myself stop with 50. I could go on and on! Please do add to it.

"We can lift ourselves, and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thoughts and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues." (President Thomas S. Monson)

The Hate/ Heebes list

I was talking to a doctor friend the other day and this came out

"I hate nurses."

Whoa...HATE? Hate is a pretty strong word.

He goes on to explain he just doesn't like when they try to argue with him on final decisions. If someone gets sued in the end they go after the doctor, not the Nurse, PA, Nurse Practitioner, etc. The doctor should make the final decisions because of various reasons but also because in the end they are ultimately liable.

Understandable.

It made me thing about the word hate. I remembered an instance on my mission when we were laughing about things we hated as we walked through the streets on a rainy down poor day with no one to teach in sight. "I hate when it rains all day on you and no one let's you in for 10 hours." "I hate when your feet and hair have been wet for 10 hours and you know you'll get sick from it." Just saying it out loud got us laughing about it. The next time we were on the micro (jammed packed crammed bus with no room to breath), we made an "I hate list". I prefer to say a Heebes list (basically anything that gives you the heebie jeebies). I decided I don't love the word hate. Too harsh. Plus if you can get it out there and laugh about it, it becomes something not worth hating but a way to get a good laugh and appreciate all the good. Feel free to relate and add to it.

"Things we hate"

1. Bad service (Hair in your food or other weird things, slowest servers ever, empty drinks for ten years)
2. When a good meal or dessert is over
3. Awkward door scenes
4. Unpacking
5. The feeling after being on a plane (greasy)
6. Sick people coughing or sneezing on you (or your baby for that matter)
7. TRAFFIC
8 Fighting sleep!
9. Throwing up
10. Eating out too many times in a row.
11. Waking up 10 min before your alarm goes off and you are SO TIRED! You think it's 3 am. Nope, time to get up.
12. Cramps
13. Guys talking about other girls forever in front of you "Man she's so hot!" Good one.
14. Weird stomach problems
15. Computer problems at 3 am when a paper is due. You realize it's lost and you have to write it again.
16. Being pale white
17. Smooshy bad apples when you are so hungry and excited to eat it
18. Public bathrooms with out toilet paper and no flushing. Aka Dubai bathroom where Alana just stood there out side saying "Stressed!" (see above)
19. Throwing something away because you'll "never need it again" and then you do the next day
20. Guys trying to prove how cool they are (aren't)
21. Pimples on important days
22. The never ending date (Now we're going bowling, now a movie, now sledding, how about dessert?)
23. Tacky people. "Wow, you've gotten so much fatter since you've been here" (Chile or other South American countries). People here can have their share too. "Why aren't you married? Are you ever going to get married?" I feel like saying "Why aren't you out of debt yet? Are you ever going to loose that weight?" Totally joking...kinda :)
24. Ordering at a restaurant and the other persons meal is way better than yours.
25. Being cold and body wet. Freezing wind.
26. Being bloated
27. People who talk about how skinny/fat they are. "I'm just so skinny!" Good one. Unless it's a joke. "Too fat" Always acceptable.
28. Getting your hopes up.
29. Getting no sleep.
30. Going too long without seeing or talking to your best friends!! :)

I hope this doesn't come across as a downer. I think it is liberating to recognize and laugh at all the heeeebes things in life. I will follow up this post with an "I love list" but for now feel free to embrace the bad to know and love the good!!

Aaahhhh....Hawaii

It's a DREAMMM!!!

Aloha....from the islands

Starting 2011 off right

There are things that a few friends and I call 'perfect moments'. It's a time and place when everything is just right or even way more than you could ever imagine. This can be a something so simple like feeling the sun on your face to singing in the car to watching a new baby sleep.

This was a perfect moment for me.

2011 has been able to be packed with perfect moments as I have been discovering the big island of Hawaii. It is SO different here compared to the rest of the islands.

Tons of black lava rocks mixed with white lava rocks
So many beaches lined with palm trees

Lots of tropical fish

Sea turtles everywhere

Some really great company!

May all of our lives be packed with perfect moments this year of 2011!