Moments That Matter Most

Truly Inspired.

My goal: to slow down and appreciate the moments that matter most.

St. George

Memorial day weekend I took a road trip down to St. George with a few of my favorite girls! Audrey lives in St. George and invited Lorina and I to come stay at her house. I LOVE the Spainhowers! They are so much fun! 

Audrey, Audrey's sister Stephanie, Lorina, and I drove the 4 hours down to the lovely St. George on Friday. We listened to some Queen, Micheal Jackson, and Prince to keep us entertained. We stayed up late talking and laughing and playing loaded questions. Best question: If you were on a date with Stephanie and she was wearing her sun glasses and treating you like her servant and making you do stuff for her, what would you do? or maybe: If you were Miley Cyrus what would your celebrity name be? (has to be a name and then a state). I said Pamela Alabamala. I think it was the best. Audrey's Milo Ohio wasn't as good. What would yours be?

Stephanie, Lorina, Audrey, Mariah, Me

Saturday we slept in until 9 and then got ready to go to Zion's national park. We piled in a van with Audrey's mom and  3 sisters. It was a fun girls day but it took us much longer then expected to leave the house and to get to the place we wanted to hike. We finally arrived though and it was a beautiful day. Lot's of fun hiking. 

After Zion's Audrey had a wedding reception so Lorina and I did a session in the St. George temple. It was perfect. It is such a beautiful temple. After that we ended the night by getting frozen yogurt and hiking up on top of the painted Dixie rock (I think they call it the sugarloaf) and looking out at the city. It was pretty much a perfect day with perfect people.

Sunday we went to church with the Spainhowers, had a lovely barbecue, went and visited Rachelle and Brad at the Doxey's, and played card games. Another perfect and relaxing day.

Monday we ended our stay in St. George by going to Snow Canyon to hike some red rock and play in the sand at the sand dunes.

School Spirit!

Jumping

Epic posing picture

Beautiful girls

Love her! 

Then we had to say goodbye to the warm and sun of St. George and head back to Provo. We got their just in time for the Memorial day white out/black light dance party!

What a lovely weekend! Thanks Auds!

MJ

I miss

the SOUTH!

I was born a western girl who was uprooted to the south and found a piece of myself I never knew existed!

It's something you must experience for yourself. 

southern hospitality.

green rolling hills.

white picket fences.

humidity.

cowboy boots.

southern belles.

country music.

drive-in movies.

old friends.

southern houses.

front porches.

accents.

summer. springtime. fall. 

southern food. 

southern gentleman. :)

There are two sides to southern life: 1. the sophisticated southern  2. the country.
I aspire to be a  mix of both.

 A southern belle/country girl.

and I want to marry a southern gentleman/cowboy.
I know he exists somewhere. (and I wouldn't mind if he looked like Harrison Ford)

MJ

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Julia Roberts movie...

and no I don't mean "Pretty Women". Although it would be nice to have someone buy me really fancy clothes; but I don't think my parents would be okay with that kind of career choice... I'll stick with accounting.

My favorite Julia Roberts movie is "My Best Friends Wedding". I think this one hits home for me because I tend to always fall in love with my best friend. Which leads to really great relationships but not so great break ups. Plus this movie doesn't have the typical "happy ending". She does not end up with the guy (sorry if you haven't seen the movie and I just ruined it for you), but she moves on and is happy none the less.

The movie I was thinking about today however is "Runaway Bride".


There is a part in that movie that has always struck me. As Ike Graham (Richard Gere) is trying to figure out why Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) can't commit to marriage he asks all her former grooms one question: what type of eggs did Maggie like? At first it seems silly to ask such a question but as we hear the answers we see a pattern; she always likes the same kind of eggs as the person she was dating.

What does this say about her?

At the end of the movie she has a realization and decides to figure out what type of "eggs" she likes best. Once she makes that decision she is able to make it down the aisle and live happily ever after.

Why am I telling you all this... well I think I'm a lot like Maggie.

I don't think I know what type of eggs I like best.

I tend to like the same things as the people around me. I'm very easy to please and very open minded. I will always try something new. It's not that I don't have an opinion, I do, but it tends to gravitate based on who I'm with.

I'm not saying this is a completely bad quality. Actually it is one of my best because it allows me to experience new things, but I think it's time I discovered what type of "eggs" are my favorite. I can still like other things and be open minded but I need to figure out what is uniquely me.

I've already begun this journey and am having quite a fun time discovering myself. Who knew I was so great?

Do you know what kind of eggs you like best?

MJ

PS: Here is a quote from my current read, The Great Gatsby,  "...now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again the most limited of all specialists, the 'well-rounded man.' This isn't just an epigram--life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all."

Hesitant

Hello Bloggosphere!

So I must admit that I have been hesitant to post on my blog because:

A. It's been almost 2 years since my last post and I feel like the first post back needs to be EPIC and I don't have time for said epic post because of all the epically fun things I'm doing with my life.

B. I hate the layout of my blog and I look at everyone else's super classy and cute blogs and I have a tinge of envy. I am blog illiterate so I have tried to make mine cute but have failed ( and no I am not fishing for compliments with this or asking for reassurance).

C. I have been horrible at taking pictures and am not good at taking pictures when I do take them and I feel a blog is super boring without at least a few sweet pictures.

But even with all that hesitancy my mind is exploding with things that I just HAVE to tell the world through my blog. So I decided that like ripping off a band-aid I just had to do it quickly.

SO here it is.... my first post back! Few, that wasn't so bad now was it.

Here's to more blog posts to come! It feels good to be back! :)

MJ


(PS. If anyone has any tips for making my blog not look like it was made by a kindergartener it would be much appreciated.)

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Goodbye!

Goodbye everyone!! I will miss all of you very much but I am very excited to start my mission! I will be thinking about all of you and will keep you in my prayers! I love you and thanks for being such wonderful fantastic friends!!! You guys are awesome. I hope you have so much fun and that the next year and a half brings you much happiness! Goodbye for now but this is not the end!! I know we will be friends forever :-) My address is on facebook under my info if you would like to write me.

Love you guys and see you soon,

Sister Newby

Change

Wow, a lot has been going on lately! Things are definitely changing....

Sometimes it's really hard for me to accept change. When things are going good and you like the way they are then why would you want them to change?? But I have realized that without change life would be boring and there would be no room for growth. So I've decided that instead of trying to hold on to the past I'm going to embrace the changes in my life. I wonder what new and exciting things my future holds... :-)

Somethings that have been going on:

1. Lorina got her mission call!! Morristown, New Jersey Spanish speaking. I'm really excited for her and know she will be an amazing missionary just like she is an amazing friend.

2. I went to Las Vegas for Easter! It was so nice to see my parents and to be with family :-) My aunt got married and the wedding was beautiful. I am really happy for her. I also got some shopping done for my mission. My first shirt and a pair of shoes! haha So exciting.

3. Finals are here... but that means I'm almost done with my first year in the accounting program, which is by far the hardest!! I can't believe I have really almost finished. Let's just hope my grades are good enough to get me into the masters program!

Some thoughts:

1. I have the most amazing friends! Wow I have been so lucky to meet the most amazing girls and to be able to spend so much time with them! They are such good examples to me and help me to have fun and smile when life gets hard. They are beautiful, smart, funny as heck, talented, and just so much fun to be around. We are all going our seperate ways and things will never be the same as they have been the last few years.. but i know that our friendships are only beginning :-) To you my favorite girls... I can't wait for the amazing adventures to come!!

2. I've decided that one of the hardest things to deal with is when someone you really care about disappoints you. No matter how hard you try, and even if you do everything right (which doesn't ever happen), they still have their own agency, and can do things that you don't think are best for them. You can't force someone into being something. Even if you know they have the potential and can do so many great things with there life if they only try, they have the ultimate decision. They get to decide what choices to make and what path to follow. Even if you think they are choosing the wrong path there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do is continue to love and support them and hope things work out. It's hard seeing someone you love struggle and try to find the right path. Recently it seems I've been having to deal with this issue with multiple people I care for. I guess it's a lesson I need to learn... to just butt out and let people use there agency. Even if sometimes I do get hurt in the process.

3. I need to learn to control my emotions! Sometimes my emotions just take over and then I do/say really stupid things. Looking back at the things I say I'm like... "what was I thinking?". I guess the problem is I wasn't thinking, just letting my emotions have control. So from now on I am going to do better!

Ok sorry if this was the most boring random post ever... you don't have to read it. I just needed to vent about somethings and get them out there.

Hope everyone had a wonderful week and I will blog agian soon with pictures :-)