DECEMBER

*** HOME FOR CHRISTMAS***


Grandma Thomas, myself and Brother (Darren) :) Two of the best chefs I will ever meet. I'm mixing garlic mashed potatoes, and my brother is making green beans with shallots, and short ribs. We had an amazing Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinner! Thank you Darren! :)

Audrey and Grandpa goofing off. Pure joy and I love it! My favorite part about this picture is my dad's hat that is side ways...if only you knew my dad...ha ha...
A little bit of Christmas :) These are our stockings and a homemade decoration compliments of Darren at age 8 or so... I love Christmas at home because it is so unique to our family. The decorations, the smell of Christmas, the Christmas movies, and the few but great traditions we have. We always have Root Beer floats on Christmas Eve, and my mom and I always make cookies and deliver them to friends and family on Christmas Eve.
Audrey and I opening the gift I bought for her and Ally. It was a Gingerbread House!! Audrey's commentary, "It's soooo cool! It's mine!!" ha ha...I just love her so much! :) The plan was to make this gingerbread house with her, but that never happened... Not enough time :(
Brother man and I, a.k.a Squirt and Derwood, on Christmas Eve in front of our tree :) He picks on me, I cry, he takes the remote from me, makes me watch endless hours of ESPN and man, we just love each other...ha ha...no really, we do :)

Ashley, Caroline and I at her Bachelorette Party at Buca Di Beppo in Mira Mesa. We had a great time talking girl talk, eating delicious food, and opening the fun gifts we got for her! ha ha...I just love Caroline and wish her the best in her marriage :) Sean and Caroline were married on December 27, 2008 in the San Diego Temple.

22nd Birthday in October in Salt Lake :)

My 22nd birthday in downtown Salt Lake at the
Hard Rock Cafe. These are just some of the people who showed up to make the day special! :)
Thanks friends!!!!

Done and Done with School :)

Hey everyone! I've been horrible at updating my blog. Sorry! Let me get you all caught up with this post :)

October 2008: Traveled to Utah to visit my good friends for my birthday :) It was sooo much fun! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Salt Lake because it's been the tradition for the last 4 years. I had about 20 friends show up to celebrate my 22nd birthday with me; I couldn't believe they all made it! Thanks for making my birthday soooo special guys! :)

I ended up waiting for 3 hours to get out of the Salt Lake airport due to a "Bird Strike." There was much confusion as to what this meant and we were delayed another hour because of this. The funniest thing about this was that they announced it like we all were supposed to know what a bird strike was! Ha ha... Turns out it is exactly what it sounds like. A freakin' HUGE bird hit and cracked the nose of the plane as it was decending to land in Salt Lake. We had to wait for the next plane to land in Salt Lake so that we could then turn around and go back to Denver. "What up Tderadactyl?" LOL! Don't travel with me, I bring bad luck it seems...

Also during this month I began dating this kid named Josh. In the beginning it was really fun and we did a lot of fun things. We went to the Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids Soccer game, a Circus, went to some movies, traveled down to Idaho Falls, CO to the famous Beau Jo's pizza and walked around the cute little town, and we did a lot of church activites together. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I had this experience :) Things ended up not working out between the both of us and we broke up at the end of November, but we are still friends.

November 2008: Continued to work at my Internship and enjoyed running my groups with my clients. They were amazing and taught me a lot! I worked with individuals who have Multiple Sclerosis and Traumatic Brain Injury. We took them on outings to the Denver Zoo, Target, Dave and Busters etc... I was very busy with administering assessments, completing case studies on my clients, creating the KADEP Blog for our facility to complete my Senior Capstone Project, as well as continuing to run my groups through it all... I also had the opportunity to fly home for Thanksgiving which was a huge blessing! It was great to visit and to be with my family :)

December 2008: We took our clients skiing up at Breckinridge on Dec. 3rd, and even learned how to ski myself :) It was such a great experience! We stayed in a cabin that was nice and cozy, ate chilli, drank hot chocolate, played games, and had a local band come and play to entertain us for the evening. Our clients really enjoyed it and it was extremely therapeutic for them. On December 12th my internship ended and 4 days later I flew home to San Diego to visit for Christmas.

I've been home for 2 weeks now and will fly back on Friday. It's been so nice to be home and to relax with friends and family. I am not sure what I will be doing when I get back because I am currently unemployed and homeless, but working on establishing both of those here soon. If things end up falling through I will pack up my car and drive home. Even though I despise living at home again, I will be able to save money and figure out what I really want to do with my life.

Although life has been pretty difficult these last few months, I have no doubt things will work out the way they are supposed to. God has really been trying to teach me faith, and not just faith, but blind faith to be exact. It's hard, but I'm grateful that I have a strong relationship with my Heavenly Father who can help guide me through this life that sometimes seems too hard to bear. Nothing is impossible when I have Him by my side, comforting me and helping me through my trials. Life is scary when you look through your eyes only, and not through the eternal perspective God offers. I have faith in Him and His plan for me.

COLORADO

Wow! So I absolutely love Colorado and all the fun things I have been able to do out here. This past month has been absolutely great and I have met lots of awesome new people. My roommate is awesome and I am enjoying getting to know her. She is currently trying to sell the house we are living in so that we can move into a two bedroom apartment that will be cheaper. We have lots of fun laughing at random crap, making eachother laugh, playing games and eating good food. Tonight I am making spaghetti!! Lets hope I can live up to the masterpieces her and her brother have made in the past few weeks! Her brother has made chicken cordon bleu, pork chops, and buffalo chicken salad. She has made just as many amazing dishes that I can't even begin to think of the name for. I have my own room and bathroom so that has been really nice. I am so blessed to be here and to have the opportunities I have had.

The monday after I got here we went to a Rockies game with her friends who had extra tickets. We even sat in the club seating!! It was a good time for sure.

Vickie and I at the Rockies game! Rockies 4, SF Giants 0

It has been great to see my extended family so much! I was able to go watch my cousin Shannon play in a softball tournament in Aurora. My cousin Rori goes to CSU Fort Collins and she came down to watch her sister play as well. Considering I don't always get to see them all that often, this was a real treat :)

Me, Shannon, Ben, Aunt Caroline, and Rori

One of the things that I was most excited about was to go hiking once I got out here, and as you can see that is exactly what I've done! A couple of weeks ago I went to Green Mountain which is just west of Denver and hiked with my friend Stephanie. Then just yesterday I went to hike Devils Peak with people from my ward. It was SOOOOO breathtaking, I can't even describe the beauty I witnessed. Hopefully the pictures will provide some insight!

Over those mountains is Utah! Hello friends!

Stephanie and I on our hike!

At the top of Devils Peak

It is amazing to me how beautiful this country is! What a blessing it is to be able to walk outside and see the nature that God created for us. I was so happy while hiking and loved every minute of it!

** VEGAS **

LAS VEGAS!!!

Vegas was SOOOO amazing!!! LOVED IT!! As you can see we went shopping on the strip with H & M as our destination. Becca, Brooke, Megan, Joey and I had so much fun trying on random things and helping eachother find cute outfits. We met up with everyone at The Cheesecake Factory in Ceasars Palace that night and then we all went to the Belagio Fountains. They were gorgeous! Then Jake and I went on a date to finish off the night :) That was definitely the highlight! We both LOVE Vegas so it was perfect. We went to the Harley Davidson cafe and drank all the water we could considering Vegas is 90 degrees still at 11 at night. Then we went back through the Paris Hotel where we found this amazing night club/lounge where these two piano players were playing amazing music. We were drawn in by a song we both knew and ended up staying for about an hour and a half. With his love of music and my obsession with piano music we both were having a blast. It was simply amazing :)

EFY 2008

Especially For Youth 2008

Santa Barbara Session 3

Vegas Session 2

Vegas Session 1

Me and my girls (and boy) before the dance that night :) They were super excited!

So I went to Vegas for two weeks to be a counselor for EFY (Especially for Youth). It was sooooo much fun and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it! I was there for the last week in July and the first week of of August. Initially I started in Santa Barbara and did a week there before we came to Vegas. Last summer I did 3 sessions in Santa Barbara and I knew that it was something I absolutely had to do again. The experiences I had last summer were life changing, and this summer was no different. Everytime I do EFY I learn new things and it helps me refocus my life and my goals. I love that I get to be surrounded by the spirit 24 / 7 while teaching these youth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love seeing the changes these kids make throughout the week, and how they come to know their Savior on a more personal basis. It is a program that I feel is completely inspired by our Heavenly Father and I was blessed to be an instrument in His hands once again.

* tHoUgHtS *

I should be in bed, but I'm wide awake
the thoughts continue to stream through
my mind with all the worries that I make,
dating, mission, masters; just to name a few.

options are blessings,
where we go, what we do, we choose,
prayers are my first instinct,
I know with them I can't loose.

happieness is our creation,
it is the feeling of accomplishment,
it is the service we use to alleviate eachothers burdens,
it is the LOVE received and sent.

if we place it in God's hands,
our lives will make a difference,
in faith, my plan and His plan will coincide,
He is my guide, my light, my strength,
through Him my worries are minute in length,
with Him my life makes COMPLETE sense.

-Traci Leigh