Maroon 5 - Let's Stay Together (Al Green cover)

One of my favorite voices singing one of my favorite songs

Photo of the day

Photo of the day

Hilarious

Update! (Update on the update 7/10/12)

Hello, friends! Just wanted to update everyone on what is going on with us since all of you are so good about sharing your own adventures.

I had my birthday which isn't that important, but I thought I would share a birthday picture since it's rare that we remember to take any. I'm 26 now and it's freakin' me out!! This is my last year in my 'mid-twenties' and I don't like it. I just have to remind myself that a) I could be way older and b) that you should "never regret growing older; many are denied the privledge." Anyway, I had a nice birthday and was able to do some shopping with the birthday money my parents gave me and had some dinner with friends at my favorite Mexican restaurant followed by cake and ice cream. The night before I had enchiladas made by my mom and a little family party. All-in-all it was pretty great.

Joe is attending school as well as a pre-med student and will be starting his junior year next month. He is having a hard time deciding what he wants to do exactly, but he knows that he wants to work in medicine. He is a math and science whiz and tutors other students at the local community college and at KU as well and is happy to report that everyone he has tutored has gotten an A! On top of that, he has taken his MCAT and did very well. Joe will begin shadowing doctors at a local hospital. He is still as crazy about sports as ever especially (but not limited to) the Lakers. Before I married Joe, I had no idea that people actually watched golf on TV for fun rather than for punishment :) I have actually learned a lot about sports -- rules, players, teams, etc. -- although I still don't and may never understand football.

In other news...
We are excited to move into a new place in a few weeks although it is just around the corner from our old one. We love our Lawrence 1 friends way too much to move somewhere else! Yes, that was the moving truck we used to move our things from our old apartment into our storage unit for the month. It was rented out to us by the storage company for a $10 gas fee. Awesome! Gotta love the Duck tape.
We will have to post some pictures once we are settled in. Unfortunately for Joe, no dogs are allowed so he will have to wait to adopt a doggie for a little while longer :)

Well, that is about it for us! We hope that everyone had a happy and safe holiday!

Love,
Bren and Joe

15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy

A friend shared a link to this article on Purpose Fairy, and I thought it was great and so true. Give 'er a look.

"1. Give up your need to always be right. There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?”Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?

2. Give up your need for control. Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu

3. Give up on blame. Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.

4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk. Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle

5. Give up your limiting beliefs about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!

“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle

6. Give up complaining. Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

7. Give up the luxury of criticism. Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. Give up your need to impress others. Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take of all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. Give up your resistance to change. Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell

10. Give up labels. Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer

11. Give up on your fears. Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. Give up your excuses. Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. Give up the past. I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. Give up attachment. This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another,  attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations. Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves.  You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path."


The original article can be found here.

Craft Weekend at the T's!

Between Conference sessions, the hubs and I have been working on our (and by our I mean "my"... what a guy being so helpful!) little painting projects. You have to understand if you don't know this about me already, but I am SO not a crafty person. I did scrapbook for a while, but I have zero hand-eye coordination and lack most or all ability to make something cute. Plus, I had the understanding that crafts were lame as my experience was limited to stupid projects from Young Womens (my leaders would always scold me for making my own thing instead of a Young Women Value Mobile. Gay!) and seeing foo foo rafia crap in middle-aged LDS homes. I recently made some new friends in my ward here that do some stuff that is actually really cool. One of them repaints hand-me-down furniture to make them her own and they look really good! Seeing what she has done inspired me to rescue give-away items and some of the wah-wahhh stuff I already have a new, adorable life! We  are about done with contestant #1 aka tiny table. I think it just needs a lil inspection and a nice coat of gloss since I thought I wanted satin finish, but it turned out to be much more flat-looking than I expected. I decided I would like them to be glossy anyway. Next up are a mirror, a lamp and an old bookcase. I will update with before and after pictures after we are done!

A most excellent video

To all my Fresh Prince generation... Ohhhhh yes!

I Remember.

Ten years ago today, I was a fifteen-year-old- high school sophomore. I heard the awful news while I was dressing out for gym class when a classmate came into the locker room and told us what had happened just a few minutes earlier. We watched the news all day in every class and people were praying and crying. So many heroes were born that day, and I remember how united this country became. I miss it. With wet eyes, my thoughts and prayers are still with the families of the fallen. I remember.

Fall is on its way!

I am sooo pumped for the gorgeous weather that began today and will continue through the week (and hopefully beyond!). The highs all week will be around 75. Perfect! I would love to live somewhere with California-type weather where winter means a sweater at most. Joe and I went on a Sunday drive tonight and as we walked to the car I actually got chilly and ran in for a sweatshirt! Love it! (The bank sign we passed said it was 64.) I normally don't like fall because then winter is around the corner, but after all this 100+ degrees crap this summer I am all for a cool down.