For The Moon and Beyond

Hopefully I'm not embarrassing my husband too much by sharing this story, but it's his birthday! So why not? haha I had to highlight one of the reasons I love him and why others admire him. A few years ago before my brother Amon passed away Daniel and I went to visit him and my mom. My mom needed help with something that required her and I to go out for 45min or so, and Daniel ended up babysitting Amon. Now, for those who don't know, my brother had special needs and had the mentality of an 8 month old baby. He required 24/7 care (although he could walk), so leaving him with anyone besides our immediate family was very rare. Even though it wasn't an easy task, my sweet new fiance (at the time) took it on and my mom and I left. When we arrived he was giving my brother a shower because he'd had a dirty diaper. I remember feeling so many things (especially humbled) in that moment but I kept myself together and asked him: Me: "How come you gave him a shower ba...

About a year ago I made my own cough syrup for the first time. It was somewhat by accident, but it's probably the best accidental thing I've ever done. I had a ton of ginger my mom gave me, and it would go bad if I didn't use it soon! So I used that ginger, added some other ingredients and created my accidental cough syrup that has worked every time we have a cough. I don't like taking medicine, so this cough syrup turned out to be perfect for me because I made it with all natural ingredients and I MADE IT! Which I felt extremely proud of! Since this has worked so well for my family I figured I should share it in case it can also help someone out there! I also have a "cure all tea" I make every once in a while...but that's a recipe for another day. Without further ado, the recipe: Homemade Cough Syrup Ingredients: 2 cups Water chopped fresh ginger (about a handful, but you can use more or less)  10 oz Honey 2 tbs Turmeric (powder) Dire...

Luna is almost two, and although it seems "too late" to be writing her birth story, I figured it couldn't hurt. Hopefully she'll appreciate it when she's older and I'll be able to reflect on that experience before our new baby is born! Luna was due November 21st, 2014. The first time I started having contractions of any kind was on November 8th, while I was out with my husband at the Marine Corps Ball. It was funny because he was hoping she'd be born on Nov. 10th (on the Marine Corps birthday), but Luna had different plans. After that first day of contractions, they didn't come back until Thursday the 13th at around 10am. They started coming every 15-20min, nothing painful, just felt like very light cramps. It wasn't until Friday night around 8 when we were supposed to go rock climbing that my husband and I decided maybe we shouldn't.. That night I ate a big dinner (becuase I was told once I got to the hospital I wouldn't be able to...

What I'm writing today is not for everyone, but it is for those who are willing to listen (or read) and who want to better themselves. For a long time I've been meaning to write this but I've been putting it off. Mainly I've been putting off writing this because of laziness (cause sitting in front of my computer is not my favorite thing) and also because of fear of being ridiculed (which always happens when talking about this subject).  About a year ago (in June of 2015) I had an experience that completely changed the way I thought God worked. I won't go into too much detail, but I had an experience and received very specific instructions from Heavenly Father as to what I needed to do for my family to be prepared for things that are going to happen. I think (generally speaking) that anyone who has ever read the Bible and the Book of Mormon know what these events are, but I don't know how many people are actually paying attention to what they are (I definitely...

I'm human, just like every person on this planet, therefore I make mistakes. I'm right some of the time, but I'm still learning just like everyone else. But, there are some things I thought I knew that I'm finding out I'm very wrong about how I thought it all worked, but I'm happy to be finding out the right way. School is always a challenge in one way or another, no matter who are, but if you're like me you'll probably be stressing out over a million things, cry, have meltdowns over exams, and just want to quit. I'm sure that scenario sounds very familiar to a lot of people, I'm not alone. Although school can be hard, I can honestly say I love it. I love going to school and learning new things. I just love learning, period. This semester was different though, even though I just had a math class and zumba, it was very different. I guess it was the way I approached it, but the things I learned were not only about math and zumba, but I learned ...

In March of 2013 Daniel left for bootcamp 2 days after proposing. After he left I made it a goal to write him every single day I wasn't with him, especially because I was afraid of losing my mind. We'd spent nearly every single day together since we started dating on June 8th, 2012 and being alone without him at that time was probably one of the hardest things I'd ever done. Although I survived, it wasn't easy and there were some things I did to keep my sanity. 1- I wrote him EVERY SINGLE DAY. I wrote him a total of 88 letters. When I say letters I also mean paragraphs, as there were some nights I was way too tired to write more than that. I had a notebook I took everywhere with me, and I'd write as if I was talking to him every single night. For me that was therapeutic most of all because I was so used to talking to him every single night, whether it was in person or on the phone. Another thought that always helped was that every letter I wrote meant I was one d...

*NOTE*   As I am an extremely cheesy person and this is from my point of view, it is an extremely cheesy story. Read at your own risk. Haha WHEN IT HAPPENED! Friday, March 15, 2013 HOW WE GOT ENGAGED! Since the first day I met Daniel on a high school  field trip , he always planned on joining the military, and in February of 2013 he finally swore in! At first I was nervous about him going to  b ootcamp  on March 18th, 2013, but I knew this was a big step in our lives, and the sooner he left the sooner he'd be back. Since the beginning of our relationship, we always talked about marriage and what the purpose of it was, so we knew we would get married someday. To us marriage has always been a sacred topic, especially because God has always played a big part in our lives.  During the week of March 15th, Daniel started acting a little funky. He got constant calls from my mom, kept texting secretly' had to run errands without me, and my dad kept calli...