Wonderful World :)

I just can't get over what an incredible month this has been! I have seriously had such an incredible time up here. I have literally never had such a fun time with such fun people.

It's been so nice getting to know different people, and getting to do different types of work. This last week the whole entire staff came up and we've been doing training. There are SO many more people up here than there was for most of the month of May. I have to admit that it's really crowded and definitely an adjustment.

I love that now I'm getting to work in the store more regularly, because that's what I'm going to be doing all summer. I got to meet the girls that I'll be working in the store with and they're so great! I'm really looking forward to it.

Oh! So funny story. This past Saturday, I had to work in the store. The day started with a bit of a hitch- I was supposed to be at the store at 8:45- my alarm did not go off and I woke up at 8:41. I grabbed my shoes, threw on a shirt, brushed my teeth at the speed of light and sprinted out the door. But as soon as I opened the door, much to my surprise, I was greeted by SNOW! I threw on a sweatshirt, put on my shoes and literally sprinted to the store, getting there at exactly 8:45.

Then, the day got even better. A Youth Conference was in camp, and they were doing an Amazing Race activity. They asked me to be one of the people that gave out the clues, and they gave me this ridiculous looking hat that I had to wear all morning. (See picture below)

Anyways. It was pretty fun. I really enjoyed it!

Then this last week has been really nice. We've been doing some general staff training as well as some individual training. For example, yesterday, my job consisted of making shakes and eating them, then learning about my personality from a personality test that I took. (It was actually really interesting- It's called Persogenics, I think? Anyways. I definitely learned a lot about myself.)

Just to sum up, I love it up here. It's so gorgeous and I'm having such a good time. I couldn't be happier! :)

Games Galore

I have just got to say: I LOVE playing games. I'm not talking about the mind games/playing hard to get kind of games. Oh, no. I'm talking about the competitive, crazy, wild screaming, sometimes awkward games that bring everyone closer together. That's one thing that I absolutely love about being here at Aspen Grove, especially in May Crew- we play games pretty much every night. Whether it be a card game or a getting to know you game or a game where everyone is all over each other (which is actually more common than not), it's always so much fun!

Tonight was another awesome game night. It was just awesome to have so much fun with everyone, especially because so many people love to participate and don't hold back. It's so much more fun when everybody wants to be playing and everyone is having a good time. Regardless of the fact that my body is completely sore from some of the games we played, I'm convinced that it was totally worth it.

Every passing day just gets better and better. I love being able to spend so much time with everyone. It's what I look forward to every day- it's not the getting off of work part that I eagerly anticipate, it's the hanging out with everyone. Okay, so maybe it's a little of both. But for the most part, it's the game-playing and hanging out.

Today was definitely another happy day. I was a hooker... a curtain hooker, that is! I spent all day hanging up curtains in the family lodges, and the time just flew by, for once. It was a day filled with laughter and good times. I love being happy! It's so nice not to have many stressful things in my life. I love how simple my life is right now: no school, no drama, no nothing. Just me, the mountains and the wonderful people that I'm surrounded by. Plus of course, I have the free time to read or play games or whatever I like. (Oh! Today I started reading Achieving Your Life's Mission by Randal Wright- I got through the first two chapters and I loved them! I can't wait to keep reading).

Anyways....right now, my face literally hurts from smiling. That's a pain I can definitely handle.

:)

Choose to Be Happy :)

I'll be the first one to admit that the motto, "Choose to be happy" is not always as easy as it seems. In fact, there are some days when I simply don't have the energy or the desire to choose to be happy. It seems as though if something is going wrong, everything is going wrong. Or if nothing's going wrong, there's nothing in particular going right. One day my roommate from freshman year had come into our room smiling. "What a great day!" she said. "What happened?" I asked her. "Nothing," she said, "but nothing bad happened." That really stuck with me. Since then I've tried to make an effort to be more positive in my life, but if I'm being honest, I haven't really tried that hard.

So, fast forward to now. Today, May 10, here at the lovely Aspen Grove. Well, actually, fast forward to the day before today. I went to my grandma's ward in Alpine, and there were some really great talks given, one especially about prayer. I realized that there were so many things that I needed to pray about, and I just hadn't been. I knew that if I wanted to make this week more productive and more enjoyable than the exhausting week I'd had before, that some things were going to have to change. So, I decided to wake up a little earlier than was necessary the next morning and spend some time praying and reading my scriptures. So, this morning, I got up at 6:30, prayed, got ready by 7:00 and read my scriptures for thirty minutes. And of course, before I left for breakfast, I heard Alison Jones' voice in my head telling me that "Happiness is a choice!" And I decided that I was going to be happy and I was going to have a positive attitude today. And it totally worked! My feet didn't hurt as badly, and even though the day was still long, I was able to enjoy the company of those around me and to get my work done without complaint. Then of course after work it was incredibly easy to be happy- we had FHE up here and had a great spiritual thought and then played a game, Body Body. (Oh yeah- before FHE, I was nertzing it up with some friends... let me just say this: it was intense.) After FHE, a few of us just watched some youtube videos, which is always a blast. Anyways, it's the end of the day, I'm sitting on my bed, and somehow there's a smile on my face, where usually it's just an exhausted neutrality of emotion combined with an aching desire for sleep. But today- today, I'm not even tired yet.

Now I'm not saying that this will work for me every day. In fact, I know that it won't. I know that there are some bad days and sometimes I'm probably going to despise the work that I'm doing and no amount of positive attitude will be able to overcome my distaste for the task. However, I do know that at least for  the present and future, I am going to try to get a consistent schedule of prayer and scripture reading, because I truly felt the difference that it made in my day today. I am going to continue to make a conscious effort to have a positive attitude.

It's all a part of my master plan for self improvement this summer. My main goal is just to become the best me that I can this summer, while I have the time to focus on it. Without the distraction of school and tests and homework or even drama with friends, I'm hoping that I'll be able to focus on improving myself. I plan on exercising daily (although at the moment, that's probably going to have to wait until June when I have shifts and I'm not working 8-5). Anyways, even without exercising daily, I still feel that I'm being quite active, and my pulse is definitely up there throughout the day. I also would really love to get my voice back into shape. Since I've been up here, I've been able to sing more than I have in a long time, which has been really great. (Whenever we clean, we put on music... and naturally, the singing follows.) Of course, there's my spiritual goals: more consistent prayer and scripture study, etc. I also want to read a whole lot more this summer, although now that I'm up here I'm not sure how realistic that is, as I'm hanging out with people more than I had anticipated. Originally, it was my goal to read through the Work and the Glory series again, but I honestly don't know if that's going to happen. There are a couple of self-help books that I want to read though, so hopefully I can read those.

Anyways, I'm just so grateful that today was such a happy day. I'm grateful to be up here where everything is so gorgeous, with people who make life so much more fun. Most of all, I'm glad that I made the choice to be happy, and that it worked. :D

It's a New Job, It's a New Life.... for 4 months :)

Wow, what a whirlwind these past few days have been. First of all, quick little recap: 

I went to Texas for two weeks and it was absolutely wonderful. It was so great to be home and to spend time with my family and friends. I loved seeing everybody at church and I loved, loved LOVED eating at all of my favorite restaurants. (aka Rudy's, Hills, Sandy's, etc.) It was a well needed and well enjoyed vacation.

On Tuesday, I started work at Aspen Grove! And what a new experience that was. I'm a part of the May crew, which means that we work getting the camp ready before the beginning of June when all the campers come. Basically, it's a TON of cleaning, and at the end of the day I am absolutely exhausted. It's an 8-5 manual labor job, at least for this month. My body is slowly but surely adjusting, lucky for me. 

Today was especially exciting because I finally got to start working in the store, which is where I'm going to be working full-time come June. I can't wait for that, because then I get to interact with a ton of people.

Anyways, to sum up, I think it's going to be a really fun summer. Of course it's going to be hard work, but if it was easy, they wouldn't call it work, would they? More updates to come soon!