Thursday Three | 01.30.14

• My left lower leg was numb the majority of the day and it kind of freaks me out. 
• I've got a constant fear of falling down, so I refuse to shop alone. Makes buying stuff for Greg rough. 
• My left eyebrow is wigging out lately... it does it's own thing and looks like I pluck/shave it weird.

Thursday Three was developed by Kristin from RUKristin. You can read more about it {here}, then play along over on Instagram and follow me @bre11414.

A Simple Photo 3

 This one comes from about 16 years ago. This is the only "professional" family picture that we had taken of all of us. Isn't it awesome? Oh gosh, my hair, and my overalls! Wow. Not to mention Shari's bangs, and Kennan. Then there is McKenzie who informed me that the reason her hands are like that is because I kept smacking her hands down. Isn't it so funny? When I went home for Christmas, we visited Grandma, who is apparently the only one who has a copy of this photo. We sat around and just laughed at each other and how different we look. Dad has wanted to recreate this photo for some time now, so with us all being home for Christmas, we took advantage. Now keep in mind, none of us were prepared for this, and it was pretty late at night. The photo was about what we expected.

We haven't changed a bit, have we? We all had a good laugh at both photos. One thing that I am so grateful for now days is the ease of being able to take photos. I so wish that we had more photos like these from when we were all younger. We could have some really great laughs. I fully intend to take lots and lots of pictures of my family as they grown up, and want to take some form of  "professional" family photos at least once a year (or at least every few years) instead of waiting sixteen years, though we do have some family photos from weddings, though they aren't the same. I just think about what a treasure photos are. Without them, how else would we remember all these fun things, and recreate them?

Inspiration | 01.27.14

Like last week, I found this wonderful quote while searching through various General Conference talks. This one comes from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk called, "The Infinite Power of Hope"

Before I first started letting people in my ward know about the scleroderma diagnosis (or really that anything was wrong) I had a man and his wife who were sitting behind Greg and I in church mention that I didn't seem like myself. At this time I was super emotional, so I started crying as SI told them about the diagnosis. The sister came over and crouched down in front of me, and held my hand as I told them what was going on. This sister also happens to suffer from an auto-immune disease. They both told me they would pray for me. A few days later I received this gift from this wonderful couple.

The little balloon says hope. As I've been trying to come up with topics for my lesson on Sunday, hope keeps coming to mind. I love how President Uchtdorf phrases this. We need hope to get us through trials, and to have that little glimmer of hope that better things are to come. Read the talk. It's fantastic.

What are your thoughts on this quote? What does hope mean to you? How does having hope help you through your tough times?

January-ish

And another month has flown by. Crazy how that works. Especially since in the moment it seems to be taking forever. It has been a good month, though. Work is good. The two new people are great, and they fit right in. There is an entirely different atmosphere, and it's great...Unless we have the red vs orange debate, then I have to plug my ears and ignore them. Apparently no one knows what orange or red look like.

But really, it's been really good. I love my co-workers. We have a lot of fun. Plus, I've been learning a lot about doing loans. I'm still not sure how I feel about having to do them, but it's been kind of cool to learn new skills.

All my Instagram photo taking has paid off. I won a $10 gift card to Coldstone. Heck yes!

I decided to splurge and purchase a Studio Calico subscription. It's basically some awesome scrapbooking supplies. I'm really excited about it. Now to just create some fun projects.

Relief Society is going well. For our January activity we had a lady come and show us how to do Zumba. I, of course, just sat around, however we had a great turn out, and the ladies seemed to really enjoy it. It was good to see so many sisters out. We've got a fun activity planned for February that I'm excited about. I have to teach this coming Sunday, and I'm pretty nervous about it. I am still not 100% sure what I should teach on, so we'll see if inspiration hits.

It has been pretty cold around here. My hands aren't loving it so much. I had a Dr. Appointment on Wednesday that was good. I'll post about it later.

And I think that's about it. Nothing has really happened. Just same ol' stuff. Hopefully it doesn't stay super cold. I don't mind if it snows, but just don't be super freezing. Life is great.

Week in Review | 01.26.14

Well, another week has come and gone. Here are a few highlight:

Week in Review: 1.19-1.25

• Last Sunday, a member of our ward turned 95 years old. She is an amazing woman. She almost always is at church, even though she has some difficulties getting around, but she still makes it. What a wonderful example. Betty, Kelly and I went over as a Relief Society Presidency to see her and wish her a happy birthday. Definitely one of the perks of being in the presidency.
• I didn't have to work Monday! Woohoo! I didn't really sleep in, but I didn't get dressed until probably noon. I spent the morning trying to perfect my Daily Life planner, thought I had it, but now I'm not so sure. I'll get it eventually! We did a little shopping, and I picked me up some sweets.
• Tuesday was my first day with my new work schedule. I work from 10-3:30 with a lunch at 12:45. I feel super lazy for some reason, but hope that it will be for the best. Going in later is nice because I don't feel so rushed, and I have a bit more time read and get a few small things done around the house.
• Wednesday was my appointment with my rheumatologist. I will post more about that over on {this blog}, but in short, it was a really good appointment. He also upped my meds, hence the three massive white pills. Love them, plus I got to give more blood. I am getting used to the pokes, I think.
• Thursday Greg had parent teacher conferences late, so I decided to watch the new One Direction movie, that I got for New Years and still haven't watched it. It was awesome. I loved it.
• I also scrapped my first layout in over 3 months. SuzyQ Scraps has this adorable new bundle, and I tried my hand at pocket scrapping (or Project Life). It was fun to get back at it, and try something new. I think I like simplicity.

• Friday we did our grocery and Hastings shopping so that Saturday we could just relax.
• Sure enough, Saturday was another great day of relaxing. I updated my blog designs, then we grabbed lunch from Center Street Grill, watched a movie, and just relaxed. It was so great. Those are the best kind of days.

What did your week look like? Jot down just the highlights. Keep it simple, or put together a fun photo collage of your week and post it on instagram using  #MyDailyLife_WIR.