Iheartfaces-Feet Week- Half Moon Bay Beach

This is my first time ever entering Iheartfaces. My sisters have done this before but I have not, until now. I have this cool shot from Half Moon Bay Beach in California. My nephew is in the background about to get in the water to boogie board.


Go and have a look at more iheartfaces entries from this week.

Why are we so blessed?!

I've thought a lot about this question in the past five months or so. One of my FHE brothers said something at FHE one time that got me thinking about this question. He said something to the effect that he wanted to go to Sudan someday (where the Darfur conflict is) and said that Africa is this big continent in the middle of the world and it has so many problems and issues. That was all he said but it really got me thinking. Why are we so blessed?

We don't have genocides and physical wars and bombings going on in our country. We can freely travel around the U.S. with very little threat of a terrorist attack on us because of what part of the country we are from or what religion we are. We have hot, warm and cold running water. We have indoor plumbing. We have electricity. We have more than one set of clothing. We have a roof over our heads. We have cars. We have hospitals with educated and trained doctors and nurses. We have enough food and water to eat and drink. America definitely has its share of problems, but the Lord has blessed us so much, and I think that sometimes I take that for granted.

As I pondered this question we sang a song during sacrament meeting that pretty much answered my question. "Because I have been given much, I too must give... Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care, I cannot see another's lack and I not share...Because I have been blessed by thy great love, dear Lord, I'll share thy love again according to thy word. I shall give love to those in need; I'll show that love by word and deed thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed." As we sang this song, I felt the Spirit and I realized that one reason we are so blessed is so that we can help and serve others with the resources that we have. "Where much is given much is required." The Lord has blessed us a lot and wants us to share what we have with others by serving and teaching and giving. I believe some examples of this are paying tithing and fast offering and giving of our time and talents to help others.

Independence day was last week and Lara and Glen were talking about living in America and the many opportunities we have living here. We can choose whether or not we want to go to college and what we want to study. We can work where we want to. If we work hard, we can be what we want to be. Then I read a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger about why he liked living in America that I really liked and went along with what Lara and Glen were talking about. "I love living here [in America] because it is the Promised Land, the place of freedom and unlimited opportunity where, if you work hard, you can make your dreams a reality." This is the Promised Land, but we must live righteously and be humble and stay close to the Lord if we want it to stay that way. May the Lord continue to bless America and may we continue to live righteously and remember what the Lord has done for us!

A Day on the Town with My Niece!

We like being silly :)

World War I memorial. I'd never been here before but I really liked it! I think this is kind of a forgotten memorial.

Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool!

Washington Monument!

World War II Memorial. I really like this memorial! I think it's beautiful!

Emma and I had a really fun day a couple of weeks ago when we went downtown! We also went to the American History Museum and saw an exhibit about Abraham Lincoln and another one of all of the presidents of the United States. I didn't get any good pictures there.

Insight!

The other day we were watching the movie "Evan Almighty" and one of the characters on there said something that really got me thinking. He said that sometimes people pray for patience or courage or faith or whatever and God does not just give them that attribute and say "oh there you go, you now have patience." But He gives them situations in which they can practice that attribute. I've never really thought about that before. I realize that we must work for what we pray for, but I didn't realize that we need to recognize the situations that the Lord has given us to practice those characteristics that we are praying for. As I've looked back on my life, I see that this is true. Meaning when I have prayed for courage to talk to people, it's not just that I suddenly have courage, but that I have the chance to practice my courage by being put in circumstances where there are a lot of new people and I must act courageous to talk to them.


This was the wise character in the movie that got me thinking :)

Dear Dad,

Happy Father's Day yesterday! I'm pretty sure I'm the child who called you the most yesterday to wish you a Happy Father's Day. I just wanted to say, in this post, thank you for all you do for me.

You always let me hog your computer although sometimes you really did not want to :)

You always supported me through school, whether it be financially or mentally. You made sure I stayed in school.

You gave me your silliness and my occasional humorousness :)

You instilled in me the love of traveling.

You and Mom ingrained in me a love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You always listen to me complain about life.

Thanks for supporting me throughout the years! I love you a lot and Happy Father's Day!

I Bought a Suit!

This is the only picture I got with my suit so far, so this is the one you get:) I was going to get a picture with my hair all done and my glasses on, but that has not happened yet.

I bought a suit! The other week I had an interview scheduled at a temp agency, and I thought it would be a good time to buy a professional suit. I really wanted a skirt suit set. I talked to Heather and she recommended some good brands of suits and told me where I might find them. Spencer (yes with Spence, since Lara nor Cami could come with me) and we set out to Tyson's Corner Mall and went in a few stores, and immediately ruled them out as their suits on clearance were still over $500 (literally).
Then we went to Macy's and found that they had a huge selection of suits and they were reasonably priced. YAY! Now the hard part was finding the right suit. I picked up three suits and one of them was a brand that Heather highly recommended and it was a size smaller than I normally wear, but I tried it on anyway and it ended up being the one that fit the best and I loved it. And it was on clearance! It was normally $320.00, the price tag said $119.99 but it rang up at $99.99! I was way excited:) So now I have suit for interviews and wearing to work once I get a job. YAY! Oh and by the way the interview with the temp agency did not go through because they called me up to say that I did not have enough experience for their temp agency. So that did not quite work out the way I thought.
Thanks Heather for the suit recommendations and thanks Spence for coming with me!

AnnaLisa hates looking for jobs!

So I just graduated, as you all know, and now I am looking for a job, a "real" job. Most of my past jobs have been in retail and now I am looking for clerical/ administrative assistant type jobs. It's something I've never really done before. I mean I worked at Agel Enterprises for a while as a customer service rep, but that is all in that field. I'm scared. At times I feel that I won't be good at it or I won't know what I'm doing (which at the beginning I won't know, as it is with any job.) But I'm just nervous. I hope and pray that I will be able to find a job that I will enjoy (or at least somewhat enjoy), that I will be good at, and that will pay enough so that I can support myself. I don't need a lot of money, just enough for housing and utilities, food, transportation costs, tithing and fast offerings (of course) and eventually loan payments and maybe a little extra for miscellaneous things that might come up. I'm trying to stay positive, but it can get frustrating at times. I think that I need to trust in the Lord more and just let things happen. Of course I have to work hard and do all that I can do, but I just need to not be so nervous about it and just tell myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to. Thanks for letting me write about this.