In My Next 30 Years...

First, the recap: I awoke (well, OK - I was told to wait in bed) to pancakes in bed, balloons, and a homemade card. It was great!Then, a nice, leisurely bath. That doesn't happen a lot!
Then we rushed to get ready & headed out the door. I wasn't sure where we were going, but we ended up in the Hollywood Connection parking lot. Jason thought it opened at 11am, but I guess they still had their winter hours & it was closed. It was sweet of him to plan a family fun day there, though!


After that, we went to my mom's & she took me out to lunch @ Souper Salad. We had a great time talking & eating while Jason took the kids to Murray Park.
Then it was home for relaxing & naps.
We headed back to my mom's & I had a little family surprise party waiting for me - complete with awesome decorations, an AMAZING cake by Cindy, and many cute presents. Thanks guys!
Then mom & dad watched the kids while Jason took me to our favorite little Italian place, Al Forno's, and then to the U of U gymnastics meet. It was so much fun!
To top it all off, after we got home, I got a foot and head message from my sweetheart. HEAVEN! Thanks everyone for making my birthday so awesome!

So, I've been thinking about this "next 30 years post" for a couple weeks.

Here's what the majority of my last 30 years have focused on (esp. middle school-HS)
-Wanting to impress everyone and be popular.
-Always wanting to have the latest clothes & brands (I would be SO APPALLED if I was 10 and could see myself now. I SWORE to everyone that I would ALWAYS be totally on top of all the clothing trends. I also told everyone when I'd go to the mall that my baby was going to be a total GAP baby and wear nothing else)
-Wanting to make everyone like me (even if it meant doing dumb things)
-Not taking care of my body - not loving myself.
-Doing things for show
-Hearing all the "dumb blond" jokes & starting to believe that maybe I really was dumb.
-Hurting other people's feelings
-Taking people and things for granted.


So, here's what I want my next 30 years to look like:
-Getting to the point where the Lord's opinion of me is really what matters in my life. Caring less about what other people think.
-Focus less on material things and more on eternal things.
-Making my relationship with my Savior the complete CENTER of my life. My relationship with Him is the ONLY thing that cannot be taken away.
-Taking care of my earthly temple while not being vain or prideful about it.
-Coming to love myself - internally KNOWING that I am of worth simply because I am a daughter of God and He loves me- not because I get x number of loads of laundry done, lose x number of lbs, my kids have x IQ, etc.
-Humbly listening to the knowledge of others & trying to learn from their experience as well as the earthly experiences I have.
-Showing everyone around me on a daily basis how much I LOVE THEM. Being their cheerleader and serving with a loving, cheerful heart.
-Live in the moment. This one is really hard for me, but I hope that I am able to do leaps better in cherishing every detail of my life - including the hard things. Keeping more of an eternal vision with me.
-When life's trials come my way, I hope to humbly learn the lessons it has to teach and use the trial to humble myself and have a closer relationship w/ my Savior.
-Let GO of fear and TRUST completely in the Lord, and in doing so, letting myself have pure joy.

Pretty much opposites of my first 30 years, right? Hopefully I've got my focus where it needs to be now. And hopefully I can influence my children so they have their focus closer to where it should be as well.

I'm so thankful for the past 30 years that I have loved, laughed and learned. I'm looking forward to learning more lessons the Lord has in store for me, including more babies, moves, jobs, education, and yes even trials.

"Maybe now I've conquered all my adolescent fears. I'll do it better in my next 30 years"