Merry Christmas:)

One of my FAV Christmas songs this year

It's been a special season this year. It is Christmas Eve. My Mom is working, and the rest of my family is off doing festivities with their in-laws ( I was invited :)) I'm home alone tonight, and have had the chance to reflect on what Christmas means to me. 

I am amazed by the love my Heavenly Father and my Savior have for me.

Jesus Christ was born for me. He lived his life as an example for me to live by. He gave his life, so that I can return to my Father in Heaven.

Since no one else is home right now, I got to celebrate Christmas and my Savior in my favorite way. I have always loved playing the piano. I especially love playing the piano when no one else is home. There is something magical about playing in an empty house, knowing no one is listening. 

Playing in a room lit up only by the Christmas tree and piano lamp definitely overwhelmed me with the true Christmas spirit tonight, and I am so grateful for these tender moments we get to experience in this life. 

This year for Christmas I am most grateful for the time I have got to spend with my family, and loved ones, since next year I will not be able to. I know that Christ was born onto this earth under the humblest of circumstances. I hope I always remember my love for my savior, and take time to reflect on our Heavenly Father's Christmas gift throughout the whole year...not just the Christmas season. 

I love my Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Tuna

Living at home the last year made me spoiled. My mom has a limited diet of toast, ice cream, and dr. pepper. I got used to buying my own food. Not having to spend money on rent, I dropped a fair amount on name brands. Boxed cereal, fresh fruits, expensive overpriced crap for sure. I got used to the "organic" way of life. Tonight I had a nice smack back to the life of a poor college student with the first Tuna sandwich I have eaten in I can't remember how long. Anytime I eat tuna I think of 2 things.

First I think of pregnant Rachel Green. "Did you put pickles on this?" I am a true lover of friends. I'm embarrassed to admit I have probably seen every episode at least 3 times. The funny thing is, every time I watch this episode I think, "Hmm a tuna sandwich with pickles does sound good right now." In fact I can recall a time me and the sister were watching this episode, and we did in fact go make tuna sandwiches..with pickles.

Second I think of my young days in Lagoon. Being one of the younger kids, Casey and I usually ended up hanging with the Madre and Kim during these rare theme park days. I remember always begging them to buy us ICEE's seeing that none of the other kids were around..they'd never know. The parents never gave in.  Around lunch time we'd see other families getting pizza, churros, hotdogs, delicious junk food we never had the luxury of enjoying at Lagoon. This time of day our fam dam would meet up and head out to the van. The beloved '98 Windstar held our wonderful tuna sandwiches on hamburger buns in the cooler. We at lunch in style right there in the parking strips of grass. My first meal within the gates of Lagoon was in 2013 when I went to "Frightmares" with my cousins. We went to Subway and split a footlong between 4 of us....it was a total rip off, and I wanted a tuna fish sandwich. This visit to Lagoon was also the time I got yelled at by the father of a little boy I spit on from the skycoaster (story for another time, but this event ruined the joys of Lagoon for me..and  to this day I have not been on the skycoaster)

Point of this post was...well really nothing. Sorry you wasted your time reading this :)

Food for Thought

Beloved patients of the West Jordan Family practice.

I have my job because of you...and I am grateful.

I have recently decided that I love my job, partly because of you.

...but when I ask what medications you are taking

...and you have a list of 42

You don't have to explain when/why/what/and how you take or began to take each medication.
In most cases I'm aware of what they are used for, and we now have taken up 15 minutes of your 10 minute appointment :S

hair

today i realized something. my hair is officially longer then it has been since i chopped it off the beginning of my senior year. I have had some rockin hairstyles since then. my personal fav is the "smiley cut" of ' 08. unfortunately i can not find any pics it to share with you (wendy abbott help me out:)) since this awesome cut i have tried multiple times to grow my hair out. i get frustrated and chop it to my chin everytime. i'm sticking to it this time though and growing on strong! 

life happens.

first off. happy shark week! 

http://www.youtube.com/DiscoverySharkWeek

disclaimer this post is churchy.

last week was a big week in the life of Jacqueline Ball. i have realized i only blog when i have a lot of random thoughts i just want to get off my chest. i apologize that all of my posts lately have been like this, but i find it amusing and pretty therapeutic. so i guess that was a very insincere apology.

turning 21 is a big deal and should be celebrated in a very big fashion. with the age change comes also a fun treat. the DMV. the 2 times i have been here have been memorable to say the least. first visit was excitement because i was turning the sweet 16 and finally getting my license. due to my excitement of finally being of the dating age, i did not realize who i was surrounded by. i was purely worried about making sure my picture was not terrible...it was going to be on my license for the next 4 years. this round was a bit different. i was not accompanied by my sweet madre (doing adult errands stinks!) i wasn't super excited about spending the next 2 hours in this hot room surrounded by salt lake's classiest crew on my day off. i will say it did make me very grateful for who i am, my life, and my job ( i could not imagine being there EVERY day) it also made me appreciate the fact that the back of my legs are not covered with cottage cheese...and if that day comes i'm appreciative of the fact that i am wise enough to cover them with appropriate clothing...no matter how hot it is outside. even though i have already decided to hate this place, i must say my lady who renewed my license was very pleasant. now that i have been rude, the whole time i was there i just felt sad. looking around the room i just felt love and pain for these people i did not know. it breaks my heart when i am surrounded by people i know do not have the gospel in there life. 

i love cache valley. this is no secret. anyone who knows me at all knows i have a deep desire to find myself some cache valley boy who will move me up there for life. i would be so happy. there are many reasons i love this small part of heaven, but a major reason is porcupine dam. since this has been shown to me, i feel like it should be an annual summer event in my life. every summer from here on out should include a trip to porcupine to jump off some cliffs. i had last friday off and decided to try and get a group of people together to go up there. after getting denied like crazy i found a poor boy who agreed to come with me, and bring some of his friends. my ears are still recovering, but i love it so much! 

being 21, not married, and still in school i am getting the mission question a lot. this is something i have prayerfully considered for the last 6 months. after a lot of sincere prayer and fasting i have received an answer. for some reason there is something that is keeping me here. can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. recently i have this huge desire to serve. i'm sure i have blogged about this before. i was on a run with one of my good friends a few months ago. she has just recently returned home from her mission. talking with her made me realize a large part of why i am here. we are all the Lords children. i sincerely want to be an instrument for him. i want to be able to do whatever it is he asks of me. after this run i have tried taking small steps to make this possible. i dont know why i am getting the answer that nows not the time for me to serve a mision, because i do have the desire to do so. all i know is i am trying to find any opportunity to help others where i am. even though i dont have a tag i still get to be apart of my Father's work. i love this gospel.  the closer i draw to my Heavenly Father and Christ, the more love i feel towards his children. 

on my mind

life is hard. seriously hard. 

i think i have it figured out...then it changes. 

i went to the dentist today. i do enjoy dental visits when no cavities are involved. i do not enjoy when i get a kiddie toothbrush and sensodyne toothpaste in a goodie bag. thanks for not contributing to my battle against cavities dr. webb...i don't want to use either of those. 

my bike deserves much more love then it gets. I promise to become better friends with you giant. you still are the best purchase i have made.

little bro is on a mission. i now have this huge desire to serve EVERYONE. call me if you need service. 

my mom may have introduced me to a new hobby. we made an innocent trip to the di and fell in love. we purchased a very ugly piece of furniture that we have since painted sunset gold and distressed. man it's fun making ugly things pretty. i plan on putting a future tv on top..when i have money to buy a tv. next project...headboard.

i moved to provo. i hated my job. i'm now moving back to the good land. i should've known better. in fact i did know better. i have always hated provo...i don't know why i thought living here would change that. 

life is too short to not enjoy eating sugar every now and then. there is nothing wrong with fully enjoying oreos, cookies, and ice cream. 

running is not fun. i am crazy. somehow i got talked into running 2 more marathons then i was planning on this summer. dumb. will never run a marathon after St George again... until i do an iron man of course. 

4th is almost my favorite holiday. fireworks. snow cones. blankets. hamburgers. sketchy carnival rides. twizzlers. july. warmth. this year it brings brad paisley into the mix. i will marry him. 

recently i have a new found appreciation for fleetwood mac, sugarland, and the decemberists. it is fantastic. 

life is amazing. its hard, but worth it. 

Shaun White...you're a Babe

I'm so fascinated by dreams. Lately I have been having some off the hook crazy dreams. Seriously I'm considering keeping a dream journal for future reference. Thinking back, I can group my dreams into three different categories; chick-flick, nightmares/scary, and unexplained happenings.  

Chick Flicks

As far as I'm concerned, every girl participates in the chick flick dreaming category. This category involves your typical fairytale dream. Usually occurs during relationship or early stages of real life dating. For me it most commonly occurs after watching a chick-flick. I have dreamed myself as the leading lady of "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days" an embarrassing amount of times. Happy uplifting dreams also fall into this category. When it comes down to it, these dreams really are the best stories, that unfortunately you are the only one lucky enough to see for a few reasons. First the dream is only cute and charming when you are unconscious, and second you usually cant remember everything that happens. But man it was awesome when you were dreaming.

Nightmare

When I was a little girl I would have  the same nightmare all the time. At this point in life I had 2 major fears. Dinosaurs coming back to life, and the end of the world. Sunday school made me believe the end of the world was going to happen tomorrow. I was constantly terrified I would wake up to earthquakes, bursting flames, roads cracking revealing the center of the earth, and the devil grabbing my ankle and pulling me into a sea of fire (I think I got this idea from the movie Anastasia.) My nightmare would combine these 2 great childhood fears into the most disturbing nightmare. One night I was praying before I went to bed, and decided to ask for good dreams. That night I did not dream about devil dinosaurs, and have prayed every night for good dreams since. I know repetition is bad...but I'm still scared of this dream! I can honestly say I haven't had this nightmare or another one since I've started asking for sweet dreams :)

Unusual Happenings

This category is the most fascinating to me. These are the dreams that leave you thinking...How did I even think of that? or Why did I think of that? These are my favorite. You can't really relate anything that's happening in your life to the dream...its just flat out bizarre or random. The other night I was blessed with such a dream. I was walking down a school campus, not sure what school. All of a sudden I run into Shaun White. Long dream summed up..he asked me on a date and was very charming. Never have I thought..."Man that McTwistin Flying Tomato is Pretty Hott!"  Yet there I was dreaming about him. I woke up and couldn't help but laugh. The mind is amazing. I am so excited for the day that the secrets of the mind will be revealed to us. There totally is going to be a class in the next life explaining why our unconscious mind took us to places we had no explanation for.

I am so SMART

Let me take you back to my childhood. I'm four or five. I want to impress my little brother with my garage door knowledge. Trying to explain how the sensors work, I decide its best to demonstrate by putting my head under the garage. Not realizing my head is out of sensor zone...I ask my brother to close the garage. I still can remember my excitement lying there not realizing my head was about to be smashed. It was like I thought I was doing a magic trick or something. Sure enough the garage came down on my head squeezing a good sized scream out of my little body. Luckily my mom was close by and was able to swoop in just in time to save her brilliant little girl. The worst part of this experience was not the pain from the garage on my head. It was the embarrassment that came from my mom telling everyone. Seriously, she even told a stranger at the REAMS grocery store. I love check out line small talk. I made a promise to myself to try and not give my mom any more awful stories about me to share with others. I know I did not achieve this goal, but I just realized the other night....this single experience may be why my childhood was so lame.

You Know You Needed It

 Generally it doesn't take a lot to make me happy. 

Tonight it took Ben Kweller, Spandex, and Coke Zero. 

Yes...I love my life.

....and my cute bro opened his mission call tonight:)

Love My Fam :)

 

Glad I've got these guys for eternity

So This is the New Year

and i don't feel any different.

Welcome to the New Year my three readers :) It's crazy how fast 2010 flew by. I'm getting old.  I've decided to go BIG this year and set multiple goals. I'm constantly making goals (changing goals ha) so these probably will be modified next week, but nonetheless here they are. 

One. Be the winner of the Healthy Challenge. I love competition

Two. Be a more dedicated VT

Three. Qualify for the Boston Marathon (Dream Big)

Four. Be proactive and try to be less of a loser. 

It's amazing to think back to last year. I have officially been out of Cache Valley for a whole year. When I realized that I had a panic attack and tried to move back to Logan, then Provo, then Salt Lake. I ran my first and second marathon, two relay races, and three half marathons. Dated a few cute boys. Wasted my summer learning about Anatomy and Physiology. Successfully got a group of people together for Wednesday night Ultimate (I hope this continues this summer as well)  I spent way to much money on a bike that did not get as much riding time as I would have hoped. I'll show it more love this year. I had my first official Back of the Moon party, more to come I'm sure. Lost most of my friends to marriage. Realized something horrible...I laugh just like my mom. Honestly this year has been one of the best so far. I've spent so much time complaining about how much I miss being in Logan, that I haven't realized how much I've enjoyed being home. Life is Crazy.