Whitney...

My bestest friend in all the world came home today from Australia. My mom and I drove up to the airport to pick her up. Here are some of the pictures that I took. I am not very good at taking pictures of myself...

Bishop's Appointment...

So on Thursday I went and had another chat with my bishop! He had asked me to read a conference talk by Bishop Keith B. McMullin titled Our Path of Duty. To begin the talk Bishop McMullin starts by talking about the ten Boom family who lived during World War II. They did what they could to help those who were hunted by the Nazis. Four members of the family ended up losing their lives by doing this. Corrie and her sister Betsie ended up being sent to a concentration camp. Betsie ended up dying there and only Corrie survived out of the family. Years later Corrie started speaking about what she learned while in the camp. She learned that God forgives. While she was out speaking she ran into a man who she recognized as one of the cruelest guards at the camp. He asked for her forgiveness. Silently she prayed to God to help her truly forgive this man. She reached out her hand and as she did an incredible thing took place. "The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes." The bishop and I talked about how I could apply this principle into my life. It will be only after I have completely forgiven Sean that I will be able to move forward in my life. However.... this healing is not something that will necessarily come quickly. Forgiveness is a process that takes time. It has been about 4 years and I am finally to the point where I am ready to move forward in my life. After talking about this talk I was asked what I really wanted to do with my life. I told the bishop I was looking into becoming a Certified Genealogist. Once that was said he stopped everything and thanked me for reminding him about a calling he had for me. He then asked me if I would be willing to be the Relief Society Family History and Temple Specialist. What an amazing thing! He then told me that the Lord is completely mindful of me and he was pretty sure from this calling that I was finally starting down the right pathway for my life. I am super excited to have this calling and to be able to help those sisters in the ward with their family history work!

Caleb

This is a picture of my new best friend Caleb. Whitney has been staying with his family while she has been over in Australia and almost every time she gets on to skype with us he is there with her. He is either 4 or almost 4 and is completely addicted to his wii. Once he found out that I have a wii we have bonded and he wants to come over and play with me. He tells me that his mom will drive him. He doesn't understand how far away we live from each other. One day I really want to meet him and play some wii games with him. I asked Whitney if she would kidnap him and bring him home to me because I am so in love with him... Sadly she has no room in her luggage. Hopefully she gets more pictures of him for me to add on here!!

Memorial Day Weekend...

Ever since I got really into family history this weekend has been one of my favorite of the year. I love being able to go to the cemetery and pay respect to those who have passed on. In the past my family (usually my mom, sisters and me) and my aunt's family (usually her and her 3 girls) meet together at the cemetery and take flowers. This year Whit was in Australia and Cori went camping with my brother so I was the only one from my family to go with my mom and my aunt's daughters were either out of town or too busy to come so it ended up being my mom, her sister Shauna and me that went. We ended up wandering all over the cemetery looking for the Smith side of the family... we were never able to find them. Personally I think they have disappeared from the cemetery. They were no where to be found. I need to find my map and see where they are located so that I can get some pictures of their graves. Here are some of the pictures that I took. I really LOVED the bird on the grave.... It had such pretty colors! The picture of the three of us was taken by some random lady. While we were walking around she stopped me and asked if I would take her groups picture. Once I was done she insisted on taking one of us.

Congrats Whitney and Dion.....

For those of you who don't know... My little sister Whitney has been in Australia for the last month spending time with her boyfriend Dion. Whit and Dion met each other about 4 years ago on a website called flixster, which is a site you can go on to rate your favorite movies. Dion somehow found her on there and noticed that she was from Utah and figured she must be LDS. They started talking and Dion fell in love with Whitney. She on the other hand only wanted to be friends because he was from Australia and she was convinced that there was no way they would ever meet. In December of 2007 his mission call finally came and he was called to the Arizona Phoenix mission and would report to the MTC in Provo, Utah. It was arranged that he would come out a few days early and spend some time with us. While he was in Utah Whitney decided that she really did like him. He left on his mission in March of 2008. My family wrote to him during his whole mission. During the first half of his mission Whitney wasn't really waiting for him and went on a few dates but really wasn't interested in dating. About half way through his mission they decided that they wanted to be together and so she ended up spending the last half waiting for him and walking around the house sighing about how much she missed him. She also decided to save her money up to take a trip to Sydney once he was home. He came home in March of 2010 and she went out to see him on May 3. She has been having so much fun while being out there! To read more about her trip see her blog. So Dion ended up taking her to the beach tonight (Friday May 28th here and Saturday May 29th there) and proposing to her. I am so excited for the two of them! However Whitney leaves to come home soon and I feel really bad about having them just get engaged to have her leave and them be apart. Hopefully things get worked out really fast for them to be together and get married soon. Welcome to the family Dion! I love you both and am really excited for you guys!

Changes....

Its amazing how little things bring about HUGE changes... At the beginning of May I started going to a computer class hoping to get into it. I thought I really wanted to teach school... I went to the first couple of classes and ended up not getting into the class. The more I thought about it the more I thought maybe I am not cut out to teach pre-school. I think I would go crazy working with little kids all day. What do I really want to do with my life? I think the reason I have not done much with my life recently is because I don't know for sure what I really want to do. Why go through all the trouble to take classes if I am not going to use them?
So about two weeks ago I went and had a little chat with the bishop about how down and frustrated I have been lately. The talk actually went better than I thought it would. We talked about all the crap I have been through in the last few years. Thinking about that it really makes sense why I get so down. However... even though I have been through a lot look at all I have accomplished! I graduated from college, I went through the temple, I have held a steady job for the last 4 years, I was able to be present and witness one of the most spiritual things ever when my dad passed away. I have been incredibly blessed! How many times have I been so down that I forget to count the many blessings I have in my life? Too many times! This needs to change. The hatred I have held for the last few years about Sean is doing nothing to him and is only hurting me. The bishop decided that he really wants to help me out with life and so I am supposed to go back this week. He wanted me to study about the atonement and how Christ took upon himself all of our pain. We need to let go of our burdens and give them to him. His ultimate goal is to get me to be able to look at Sean and be able to actually be happy for him. I thought this sounded really hard! However this afternoon I got up on Sean and Ali's blog and was looking at it to see about their life. He looks like a completely different guy. He actually looks extremely happy with his life and deep down that makes me happy that he is happy. I really do want the best for him. Maybe forgiving and moving on will be easier than I thought.... The bishop also talked to me about how it is best for me to heal so that I can give all of myself to the person I marry. More than anything I want to get myself better so that I can do that. I want my husband to have all of me.
So once again I have been contemplating what I really want to do with my life. The old Jaime really wanted to teach however... a lot has happened to me since high school and I am definitely not the same person. I want to do something I am passionate about. I have really been thinking about getting myself certified as a Genealogist. I LOVE working on my genealogy and getting to know my ancestors and their stories. How cool would that be to get paid to help others? For me to be able to get certified I will need to take a couple classes through BYU's Independent Study Program and then pass the exam. I have decided to take a few extra classes so that I can really understand all the parts that go into it. The classes I am going to take are:

• Writing Family Histories
• The Family and the Law (which is one of the 2 required classes)
• English Language Handwriting
• US Southern States Research
• Credentials (which is the second required class)

After finishing these classes I will decide whether or not I want to go to Boston and get my master's in Library Science and a certificate in Archives Management. I would love to be able to get a job working up at the Family History Center up in Salt Lake City. I guess only time will tell! However I do feel really good about taking this turn in my life!

Happy Birthday...

So this post is a little late but I wanted to wish happy birthday to all my family who has had birthdays this month. My mom celebrated her birthday on the 12th. Ammon and Rykert on the 22nd and Lilly will have hers on the 31st.On the Tuesday before Ry's birthday Kim invited Cori and I to go up to the Living Aquarium and celebrate the kids birthdays with her and some of her friends. I had never been there before I had a great time seeing all the exhibits. Ry and Lilly also LOVED the aquarium! For the kids birthdays this year we decided to get a trampoline. Growing up my mom would never allow us to jump on them so we had to make sure that we got the enclosure with it so that we would be allowed to have it. Cori seems to love it more than anyone else. I constantly find her out there laying out on it. We also decided to get the kids a pinata, which they absolutely LOVED! Ammon and Lacey got the kids a toy that moves marbles through it and Rykert will just stand there and stare at it and gets so excited and also a puppy named Maggie Mae. Lilly loved the puppy... she also loved the pen that is out in the back. She kept going in it and trying to play. I HAD to get pictures of her in there. Rykert has been going through a phase where he hides from monsters and the wolf... On his birthday he told me to hide quick the wolf was coming. He got under the blanket and then looked at me and said, "Its my birthday... the wolf isn't coming today!" It made me laugh! Lacey and Ammon were trying to make him a Lightning McQueen cake but it ended up not working so we hoped he wouldn't notice not having a cake.... On Sunday he woke up and said, "It's my birthday" to grandma and she told him that his birthday was the day before. He then replied, "We need to go to the store and get me a birthday cake." I ended up making him one because we felt so bad! Here are some of the pictures from both the parties we had for them. Also included are the video of them with the pinata and also Ry with his birthday cake...

Sky Coaster...

So yesterday Cori, Keely and I went to Lagoon with Keely's sister and her boyfriend and one of Keely's friends. We had so much fun! So I went on the sky coaster which is a ride that combines something like sky diving and hang gliding. I am absolutely terrified of heights but decided to do it anyway. Not only did I go on the ride but I was the person who had to pull the cord to get us to drop and swing. Here is the video that was taken of us....

Lagoon...

Here are the pictures from our day at Lagoon....