Flight UA 4662Y

I'M BACK FROM MY CRUISE! WAHOO! :) And I have more posts to come talking about how wonderful it was, but today I thought I would talk about my flight home from the Texas (IAH) Airport. Enjoy! :)

Yesterday morning we woke up at 1 am Utah time, to start our travel home. We started at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport in Florida and then flew to Huston Texas and had a 3 hour layover before boarding our flight to Salt Lake City. Well once we arrived in Texas, we went directly to our gate and waited. About 2 hours later, we saw FOUR LDS Missionaries walking up to terminal B87. (Which was the terminal our flight was leaving from). My mom then said, "Hey! We should get a picture of them with "Flat Jacob". Me being the chicken that I am, wouldn't go over, and next thing I know, my Mom and Dad were walking over with "Flat Jacob" to get a picture! When they got back, they told Elaine and I that they were from a Mexico mission heading home to Riverton (2 of them), Tooele, and Idaho. But don't worry, it only got better! Once we boarded the plane, the two that were from Riverton, sat right in front of Elaine and I and it was the FUNNIEST thing to watch them the last

3 hours and 22 minutes before they would see their families.

At about half way through the flight, one of them turned around and asked if we had any food. They hadn't had anything to eat since they left Mexico the day before! Luckily we had a brand new bag of Twizzlers that Elaine and just bought at the Airport and we gave it to them. Once we handed it to them, he turned back around and said, "You will be blessed". Elaine and I were laughing because it's just so funny/cute to watch missionaries be missionaries. Towards the end of the flight the captain came on and told us that we would be landing in 45 minutes. One of the missionaries smacked a hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face while saying, "THIS HAS BEEN THE LONGEST PLANE RIDE OF MY LIFE!!!!"  It was SO funny! As we started flying over the mountains you could see the snow. Then they started complaining, haha, "It's going to be so cold!" "I guess we could just go back to Mexico!" "I HATE snow now!" "It's SPRING! Not winter!".

Gotta love Utah's bipolar weather!

As we got closer, they started making bets about who was going to cry! Haha. One of them said, "My mom is going to BAWL!!!" They honestly were SO excited! Haha. They were jumping up and down and hitting each other and patting each others backs and couldn't stop talking the whole rest of the way home! Then right as the wheels of the plane hit the ground, the missionary closes to the window threw his fits in the air and yelled, "YES!!!" HAHAHAHA! Everyone on the plane heard him and started laughing. :) The smiles on there faces were so cute. BUT it didn't stop there. Once we got off the plane it was like we walked into the MTC! There were atleast 50+ missionaries waiting for flights to where ever they were called to serve! As the newly returned missionaries passed them, they wished them all luck and you could tell some of the ones just leaving were so envious of them! Haha. Then they had to go make sure the Elder flying on to Idaho made it to his terminal, so we got ahead of them and saw all of their families holding up the signs and trying to see past the gates if they were coming down the escalator. I was loving every moment of it!

We walked over to the baggage carousel and I couldn't take my eyes off of the families waiting to see their missionaries for the first time in TWO years! It was so fun! Then one of the mom's squealed and put her hands over her mouth and jumped up and down and ran over and hugged her missionary and from then on out the other families followed the same pattern. :) I started getting teary so I had to turn away haha. But watching all that happened, seeing the return of the missionaries, being on the plane ride with them before they came home, and watching the new ones leaving to their missions made me gain so much MORE respect for missionaries! It was just another eye opener at what they are really sacrificing. They leave for TWO YEARS to places all over the world to share this gospel. In reality it goes by so fast for them, they grow so much, and it ends up being the best two years of their life, but it really is a sacrifice to leave everything at just 19 years old!

 Having had my dad, my mom, two of my brothers, my sister, cousins, friends, and my best friend serve/serving missions I am so grateful for them. They truly are blessing their lives, the people they teach lives, and our lives by giving up two years to serve our Lord. I am SO incredibly grateful for what they are doing. Thank you to all of you that have served missions, are going to serve missions, have a missionary out, or are being missionaries every day and are reading this! You are ALL hero's to each and everyone of us! :)

So today, if you have time, I challenge you to write a missionary and thank them for what they are doing. 

Even if you don't know what to say, just draw a picture or something!

They will LOVE to hear from you! :)

...................... and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

Here's the Elders with "Flat Elder Parmley"

(One of the Elders stepped out of the picture so it would be like they were on splits! :))

cupcakes & footprints.

I have been blessed with SO many amazing, wonderful friends and family and I wish I could blog about every single one of you! And I hope that someday I will actually be able to blog about all of you in the future because literally everyone that I am friends with has made such an impact on my life and you all deserve your own blog post for being the wonderful amazing people that you are! But for today, there is one certain friend that I want to blog about..... so until it is your turn to be blogged about, know that I love you and this post does not mean I don't love you any less. :) Enjoy!

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”

Today I got together and made NINETY-SIX cupcakes with my best friend from junior high (9th grade).

 She and I were the complete package! We hung out every day, had the classic "note book" we passed between classes, and had sleepover almost every weekend. But because of a certain.... well, we'll call it a "reason". So because of a certain "reason" she and I fell away when I was in 10th grade, and weren't friends anymore. It was really weird and hard at first because it's always hard when you lose a best friend, especially so quickly and abruptly, but life went on and well, we just didn't really talk anymore. We kept in touch a little bit through facebook, and said hi in the halls, but we never really hung out. We always talked about going to lunch, but it never happened.

Well today she and I got together for the first time in three years and it honestly felt like we were never not friends! And after talking for awhile it was as if we were living in the same body the time we weren't even talking! It was seriously the best! We've both grown up, and now the "reason" is just funny thing to look back at and laugh. It actually kind of makes us a little mad knowing we got torn apart because of a "reason" like that! But because of this "reason", we've learned many life lessons and grown so much more! And on the plus side, both of us have moved on and found NEW "reasons" and we are both happier than we ever were! :)

It was her boyfriend's court of honor tonight so I helped her make 96 cupcakes! Her boyfriend is (Samoan) so hence the 96 cupcakes. ;) It was SO nice to be able to spend those 4 1/2 hours together (yes, it really took that long!) and just talk about old memories, and what we've missed in each others lives! I hope that she and I will be able to do something again soon because hanging out with her today made me realize just how many "footprints" or so to speak, she left in my heart. I will always treasure her friendship, and I'm so glad that she is a part of my life! :) Her boyfriend will putting his papers in soon, and then be leaving on his mission, so we will hopefully be able to do missionary stuff together! (Hooray!) Because we all know how much I love doing missionary stuff! ;) Haha! :)

So if you have a friend that you miss and you haven't talked to in a REALLY long time, I challenge you to do so. It just might make your life a billion times better! :) "Real true friends never leave your life for good, they just go on a mini vacation, then they come back and it's as if they never left." :)

Thank you Court! Your friendship means more to me than I think you know! It's amazing how Heavenly Father puts certain people in your life right when you need them most! TIMING IS EVERYTHING! I've missed you more than I realized, and thank you so much for a fun filled day, and the wonderful memories! I look forward to making many more! Especially because we will both be "Ladies in Waiting" Together. :) But once again, seriously thank you for being one of those friends that continually saves me life without even knowing it! Love you!............ and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

I can't find any pictures of us because we got a new computer and they're all on a hard drive I can't find, so for now I'll just post pictures of the cupcakes! (Court do you have a picture of us when we were little and the one we took today that I can post?)

Look at the eagles! :) All 96 of them! Hahaha.

Anchor

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while.... okay, 3 months. BUT, that's not the point. Ha ha. 3 months ago, my sister introduced me to the best CD in the whole entire world. Some of you may have already heard it because it's becoming more and more popular. I also have 2 of her song on my blog playlist. Anyway, her name is Mindy Gledhill, she's and LDS singer/songwriter and she came out with a CD that's strictly up beat happy love your life music. :) I seriously listen to the entire CD at LEAST 2 times a week. So I highly encourage you to buy it! It saves you on rainy days and turns sunny days into even sunnier days! Every time you listen to it, you can help but have a little smile on your face, and a little bounce in your step! :)

This is the album cover--

Doesn't that picture alone make you want to listen to the music!? You will NOT be disappointed if you buy this CD. Some of my personal favorites are Anchor, Circus Girl, All the Pennies, Crazy Love,

and the one that is my absolute favorite on the CD that is VERY near and dear to me, is

All About Your Heart.

If you know me, and you listen to this song, you'll know why. Ha ha. 

So go buy this CD today! You can get it anywhere, even on itunes!

Happy Listening!......and THAT's a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

flat Stanley. :)

My mom teaches 1st grade, and one of the things she does with her class is "Flat Stanley's". Flat Stanley is a book where Stanley has a bookcase fall on him and he is flattened. Later on in the book his parents "send" him in the mail to his cousin in California, where he visits with them, and then they send him back home in the mail. Her students make their own "flat selves" and they  bring an address of a relative or family member to send it to. When the relative receives it they take it around their town shooting pictures of the flat selves in at different places as they go.

What does this have to do with anything you ask?

Well this past Monday as I was sitting in my mom's class room, looking at the "Flat (insert name)'s" and thinking it was such a cute idea. Then..... ding, ding, ding! A light bulb went off!!!! :) That night I went home and got to work! So here you have it! The finished product! Who is it you ask? Well, it's none other than....

 ELDER JACOB WILLIAM PARMLEY! :) name tag and all. :)

Throughout the next 14 months, I will take him with me every where I go and document it. That way, it'll be just like he was always here! I'll send him the pictures, as well as post them on here. :) So here's to introducing our newest member to this blog............ "Flat Elder Parmley" :)

.................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)



quote

I've been slacking, yet again... haha. It's just been a crazy week! I am SO ready to just hop on that airplane to Florida so I can get on the boat and sail the islands of the eastern Caribbean with my parents and sister! But that is still 10 days away.

I have some things that I want to post about, but I just need to finish them so I can take pictures and post! So there will be a lot of posts coming soon!

I thought that today I would just share a quote that gets me through every day challenges and that I absolutely LOVE!

I wanted a theme for this year, and I had already came up with the rhyme theme, "2011 closer to Heaven", but I wanted a quote to go with it. I can't remember where I was when I heard it, It may have been in relief society, but  someone quoted our beloved prophet Thomas S. Monson and of COURSE it just happened to be my quote!

It is, "Be of good cheer. Your future is only as bright as your faith!"

Many of you have probably heard me say this a lot. But that's because it's true! Heavenly Father is never going to let you be miserable, he WANTS you to be happy and BE of good cheer! This quote always reminds me that no matter what, if I always have faith, everything will be okay! So, be of good cheer! :)

I can't WAIT for this weekend when we get the wonderful opportunity to listen to the words and teachings of our latter day prophets! It's always my favorite part of the year! Hopefully I'll be posting at least twice before conference, but if that doesn't happen, (considering the craziness this week has already brought on) I wish you all a very happy conference weekend!!!!!! :)

............and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

....love

So I've been CRAZY busy this week (later posts to explain) but as I was cleaning out my letter box to move into a new cute one that my best friend Fran gave me for my birthday, I found a card that has a quote on it and I thought I would share before I throw it away. :)

LOVE is

giving and receiving

touches of tenderness

patience

loyalty and trust

gentle boundaries

hearing what's not being said

sharing sorrows and joys

freedom

comfortable silence

harmony

smiles and laughter

a shelter in a storm

letting go and holding on

heart-to-heart talks

forgiving AND forgetting

unconditional

Love is seeing miracles

together.

...................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade! :)

(brought to you by Hallmark ;))

something that makes you smile. :)

The other day a friend showed me this video, and it brightened up my day!! Haha. 

Make sure you watch the ENTIRE thing... it's only one minute.... and it only gets better. :)

Enjoy! :)

....................and THAT'S a sip of Livi's Lemonade!

ALSO! I didn't think many people read my blog. But recently I've had a lot of people talk to me about it. So just because I'm curious, if you read my blog please either,

a) Like this post on facebook,

b)comment on this post,

c)Please, please, PLEASE, BECOME A FOLLOWER! :)

Haha. Thanks you guys! Love you all!