Love!

         Today I can't help but think how truly grateful I am for so much in my life!  The blessings I feel truly are overflowing!  Could life get any better?!  Since I was a little girl I day dreamed about finding the love of my life and being swept off my feet.  I have always seen myself not necessarily riding off into the sunset but eating breakfast watching the sun come up in the mountains.  This morning Ryan surprised me and picked me up at 6 AM to watch the sun rise in the mountains eating my favorite breakfast, cereal.  I was on cloud 9!  I have now accomplished one of the things off my bucket list.  :)
      I've known Ryan since I was in Jr. High and he's always been my best friend.  Eleven years ago we started a great friendship and I am so grateful to be dating him!  He remembers all the little things I say.  He has the most INCREDIBLE memory I've ever seen!  For example our last date before he left on his mission he took me to the Olive Garden.  The waitress had the coolest CTR ring on I've ever seen in my life.  I briefly mentioned how I've always wanted one like it.  After he'd been gone for 2 weeks on his mission I received a package from him.  I was dumbfounded when it was the very CTR ring I had seen on the server's hand.  The funny thing about this ring though is it only fit my ring finger.  Lol!  My dates never went without asking who gave it to me.
       One of my other favorite memories was when I was on my mission.   I had finished writing him an email on my P-Day and signed it, "Your Shin Splint Friend."  Sure enough, thoughtful Ryan went to the store and bought me inserts to put in my shoes to alleviate the pain.  The day on my mission when I received this package was when I had been transferred to open a new area and had just picked up my greenie from the mission home.  I was definitely feeling overwhelmed and receiving his package was music to my feet because now the pain quickly subsided.  This was definitely also an answer to prayer!
      Back in 9th or 8th grade, I can't remember, I had math with Ryan, Trevor Pearce, and Sarah Cammack.  Sarah and I would make bets with Ryan and Trevor that which ever group did better on the test they'd owe the other dinner.  Of course we were in Jr. High so we didn't take each other to dinner because that would have been a date.  But needless to say, I got my dinner latter on. :)  He continued to be my math buddy in high school.  Sitting in GW (Gutless Wonder, his truck) we would stay after school so he could help me for the math test we had the next day.  I used to get testing anxiety and if I didn't know the material perfectly I would freeze up during the test.  Good thing I'm a great test taker thanks to Ryan!
      For some reason, we've always had a theme when we hang out... I end up wet and he ends up bleeding/getting hurt.  Weird enough, but true!  He has this huge pond in his backyard that whenever I'd go to his house he would have to throw me in or egg on his friends to do it.  Ryan would always end up bleeding because of my clumsy nature or I try to prove to him that even though I am a girl I can work him.  Growing up Ryan and I would compete in everything we did!  I finally would get frustrated because he was a lot stronger than me and so I'd become feisty.  Miraculously enough he would end up with some kind of blood injury.  Nothing ever big that would cause a lot of blood but usually a scratch here or a bloody nose there.  After I came home from my mission we were hiking Adam's Canyon and I I gave him a upper cut to his jaw trying to use my hands while I told a story.  I felt so bad but couldn't stop laughing because I honestly didn't mean too.  Today I was so excited that I gave him a hug and the back of his head went right into the corner of my brick house.  Opps... Good thing he's had years of practice.  :)
       The memories are endless and am so happy and grateful I get to laugh everyday with my best friend!

Life is not a race

       Why do we feel in our society that we have to accomplish things by a certain time in our life?  I know a lot of people feel pressured that for women they need to be married by age 19 graduated by 21 and successfully raising a family of 4 by 22.  For men serve a mission, marry by 22, and graduate by 23.  Ok, so these dates might be exaggerated.  But I once thought that it was so crucial to move so quickly through life and accomplish what I was sent here to do, get married and be a mother.  However, the Lord wanted me to come to understand and learn some important things about myself and life before I entered this stage of my life.  The Lord has custom ordered important things for us to experience to become the best mothers/wives/fathers/husbands we can be.  We each have a path that the Lord wants us to take so why don't we stop comparing our lives and trying to mold them to be like those we associate with?  I hear so many people seriously depressed because their life isn't turning out the way they wanted it to be.  If we're keeping the commandments we should be smiling because God has a better life in store for us than we had planned for ourselves.
         Life is such a gift and we are throwing that gift away by continually wishing that are lives could be someone else's.  I was shown this picture of two rockets who were aimed at the target.  One was moving at .0001 mph and the other at 1,000 mph.  The question was, "Which rocket will hit the target first?"  The answer was the one that was moving .0001 mph because it was focused on the target.  The rocket moving at 1,000 mph was so busy trying to move fast that it missed the mark of the target.  The most important thing in our lives should be living the commandments so we can live with God again.  If we keep this as our main focus rather than trying to move so quickly through life we will achieve our goal of living with God again.  Let's enjoy the journey instead of wishing we were at our destination!
        

Personal Bubbles

MIS 2200, Business Communications, is one of my last classes before I graduate.  Last Wednesday we discussed that various cultures have different acceptable proximities for how close we should be when talking with one another.  She showed us a hilarious clip from Seinfield about this very thing.  The next day I was walking out of my class and all of the sudden I felt someone looking at me.  I looked up and there was this guy who was about 10 inches away from me.  I rudely started to laugh thinking this cannot be happening.  Sure enough he just continued to walk by me asking my name and where I was from.  I felt very rude because every one of my answers I kept busting up laughing.  I finally had to apologize saying that I had just seen something funny.  I figured it's not really lying if what I had seen was him.  Life is so ironic sometimes.  I had just been watching a clip the day before about personal space and on Thursday I experienced someone intruding into mine.

What you do when no one is watching...

I'm someone who has always thoroughly enjoyed singing and dancing in the shower.  In public I don't ever break out into song or just start jamming out.  This morning I rolled out of bed and scurried  off to aerobics.  Emily, my instructor just started jamming out to the music.  Everyone knows that whatever the instructor does you're just supposed to follow.  Before I knew it I was jamming out while laughing thinking I do this every morning on my own but not in front of a whole class of people.
Throughout the day I found myself walking by people wondering what they do when no one is watching.  Some people talk to themselves in the mirror and tell them how great they are.  Others sing and dance just like I do.  So if the majority of people do funny things when they're by themselves I wonder why society has taught us to  be reserved with this side of ourselves in public?  I'm not trying to indicate that everyone should go around singing what they're thinking like they do in the Disney movies.  I'm just thinking how much more enjoyable life would be.  Is this why the I-Pod generation is obsessed with always having head phones in their ears so they can have their own little party going on with no one noticing?
I love life and the funny things we do!

Combining Sister Cox with Danielle

Moving somewhere new, going to a new ward, or meeting people for the first time is when we're going to feel uncomfortable and wish we could be ourselves.  I long to be around people I knew on my mission such as my companions and investigators because they knew the Real me.
 Returning home I've been standing around people thinking, "No one knows me anymore. Why do I feel I need to explain for all the different mannerisms I have?"  I was hardwired for 18 months to pray before leaving the car, never touching our food till we prayed, and comparing everything to the gospel.  I've been trying to understand how to blend the two different but similar individuals, Danielle Cox and Sister Cox.  Then it dawned on me one morning during my scripture study that I don't know the Real me.  The only person who does is my Father in Heaven.  I lived as a spirit daughter of God before this life.  Who was this person?  What was this person capable of doing? Was I someone who actively fought in the war in heaven to defend Jesus Christ?  Did I play an influential role in helping my brothers and sisters choose Christ rather than Satan?  I believe I did!  I believe we all did!  Realizing that we were saved for this last dispensation confirms in my heart we weren't sitting on the side lines being swayed by others.  We stood strong to defend Jesus Christ.  Can we honestly say to ourselves that watching hours of television is why we were saved for the last dispensation of time?!  Why don't we break away from all the frivolous activities in our lives and Open our Mouths and share the gospel!  That's why we were saved for the last dispensation of time!
My relationship with God has changed.  I have deeper, more meaningful conversations (prayers) trying to discover Me.  I have always been a very driven, goal oriented person who's always tried to "become" who I was supposed too.  I now understand I need to discover who this spirit is inside of me.  We all have strong spirits that are capable than so much more than what we are currently doing?  Why don't we let the Lord tell us who we are and our potential rather than our peers and influencers in our lives?

Thoughts to the Universe

Finished! The task at hand: complete psychology, and business strategy exams. check, check. Walking home I discovered that my life still continues to tick forward. I remember feeling the stress weighing down on me while I was sitting by my fourth grade project thinking that time would never move forward!

Ironically enough, I want to steal time's progression and bask in the precious moments of life! Sitting around the dinner table Sunday with all my sisters and mom laughing about how Abram yelled, "I pooped in the Poddy!" made me wish I could freeze time.

The bitter sweet opposition in life I find surround my thoughts on a consistent basis. Yes, it is so necessary to know the bitter to appreciate the sweet. The bitter that is the hardest for me to conquer is the self afflicted heart aches. Why and how can I repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over. We, fallen natural men, fight a battle everyday to stand strong against the sins that so easily do beset us. Nephi's words constantly go through my mind (2 Nephi 4: 18-19). Him even a prophet had those feelings.

I have decided to start this blog to write my thoughts and words to the universe.