bridesmaids

Valerie and Eston 2015

9:30 PM



I adore this girl. From the first time I met her, we clicked. We were assigned to be companions while serving LDS missions in Argentina. I hadn't spoken English for nearly 9 months (other than emails home to my family, which were awkwardly half Spanish, half English anyway) and Valerie was still working on her Spanish. It was an awkward and hilarious time. So many experiences that bonded us like no other 5 weeks in anyone's life could have. Without going into Too Much Information, she took care of me when I was crazy sick, we survived several days without electricity to heat our apartment or water in dead of winter, weird food and broken toilets. Extreme bonding time.
So when she not-so-slyly told me that she was getting married in March, I HAD to be there!

President and Sister Gulbrandsen are some of my most favourite people on the planet. Steff flew in for the day and it was lovely to see her. We were all companions at some point. Love these people.

I mean, we're really cute. haha

Some of the friends that just hung around the temple for a while. Mostly because of our insane love for Val Pal. (Jess, Katherine, the beautiful bride, me and Steffannie)


Oh yeah! Eston was there, too.... haha

All photo credit goes to Mikki Platt, wedding photographer extraordinaire, who also did our wedding pictures. I will forever be obsessed with our photos and Valerie's are just as amazing! Mikki has photographed cousins and friends since our wedding and she's not only a talent behind the camera but the sweetest person ever!

#100happydays

#100happydays

3:45 PM

I've seen this hashtag here and there lately. Lovely Instagram posts about gratitude and happiness in little things. And then this morning on Facebook a friend shared the link to the challenge. I understood the general idea before I stumbled across the website. But check it out. 


http://100happydays.com

It encourages you to register. Makes sense. We all know when we're accountable to someone (or something) things actually happen. So I'm going to give it a try. I'll incorporate Taylor into it not just as something in my life I'm grateful for every day, but as a co-participant. :)


How awesome is this challenge? I'm excited!




This claim hurts my heart a lottle. That's a little but a lot. We're too busy for happy?? 71% won't complete the challenge once they start? There are so many more implications than lack of time that make me sad about where we have designated value in the world. Maybe it does take a little while to post a picture or write down what made us happy but why not do it?

I'm going to take the time to share what has made me happy every day for 100 days. Maybe it'll spread the happy. Maybe it'll annoy you. But while I would love for it to be a great experience for all, this is for me. 

I believe in happiness and hope. I believe optimism is healing. I could use a little of that. Can't we all?




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