30 Days to Get to Know Me: Day 7

Today's topic: Favorite Superhero and why...

Truthfully I really can't think of a superhero who is my favorite so I think I will change this up a little and say favorite hero and why....

I am going to say that my father is my biggest hero. He was such an amazing guy and I really feel I took him for granted quite a lot through my teen aged years... But I am sure a lot of teenagers do this. He was always willing to do whatever it took to get his callings done. He was always full of laughter and would always keep us laughing. I loved the stories he used to tell us at bedtime while we were growing up! It is from my dad that I get my love of sports... I could always find him watching and cheering on his favorite teams... Daddy, you are greatly missed!

30 Days to Get to Know Me: Days 5 and 6

Today's topics: A picture of you and your friends. What do you think about your friends?

So I ended up missing yesterday and doing this but I figure that they both kinda go together anyway so why not combine them. I can't really think of any pictures I have with me and all my friends so I figured I would just find some pictures of my friends and tell about them. For this one I chose to feature 3 of my really good friends and I am pretty sure that down the road there is another one that asks for friends so I will add more to that.

The first friend I chose is my ex-sister in law Kim. Kim and I have been really close for quite some time. I know that I can always count on her to be there for me whenever I need someone to talk to. She is a great mother and has the two most adorable kids (of course I am pretty biased since I love Ry and Lilly a TON)...

The second friend I chose to talk about is my good friend Brady. I really don't know where to begin with him... We met in 7th grade. My first memory of him is when we went on a field trip for science and he came in my group. He was the only boy and he rode up front with my mom. My best friend Gwen and I sat in the back of the van and whispered and giggled the whole time. I spent quite some time being called a silent giggler. After both of us got divorced a few years ago we dated for a few months and he is an amazing guy. Even though we broke up a while ago we are still close and keep in close contact. He is currently coaching football at Provo High...

The third friend I chose is my friend Marisa. We have been working together at the Intramural Office for the past 3 years. We have a ton of fun together! One day if everything finally works out, we plan on being roommates. She is an Anthropology major and just got back from spending the summer in Peru on a dig to help her get into grad school. She is over 6'0" tall, so she really makes me look short!

30 Days to Get to Know Me: Day 4

Today's topic: Nicknames that you have and why...

The first nickname I had was Rae of Sunshine. It is what I grew up having my dad call me. He was the only one who ever called me it so I haven't heard it for a while.

Another nickname I have is James, which is what my sister Cori has called me most of my life.

I get called Shorty some... Another one that I went by for a while is Moe. That is what Ry and Lilly called me until they were able to say Jaime. They started calling Whitney... Deedee and Whit thought it would be funny to get them to call me Moe (who is one of the Doodlebops... Deedee being another of them)

Grad School...

		I DID IT!!!!
			Application Status
	Academic Institution Term Academic Career Program Application Number Application Date San Jose State University Spring 2011 Graduate MSXD - Masters Special Sess 00421378 08/05/2010 The status of your application is: Accepted- Classified Graduate

We Got the Party with Us!

Happy birthday Joe Jonas! With being such huge Jonas Brother's fans we love to celebrate their birthday's. Today is Joe's 21st birthday and we decided to celebrate it yesterday with the kids. Ry and Lil both absolutely love them as well as all day long were talking about it being Jonas birthday party. Our theme was Pirates and Lilly had a blast dressing up as a pirate. Ry had been sick with a fever and spent most of the day sleeping and just wasn't in the mood to really party. It was really cool this year to have the brother's join us for his party.

30 Days to Get to Know Me: Day 3

Today's topic: A habit you wish you didn't have...

There are a few habits I have that I wish I didn't. One of them being the fact that I have been known to let people walk all over me. This really sucks but is something that I am really working on overcoming. I get really tired of being taken advantage of by those around me. I started this habit while I was married and it was just easier to let this happen. Once getting divorced I was so low in self esteem that I just kept letting it happen. I am now ready to make a stand!

30 Days to Get to Know Me: Day 2

Today's Topic: A recent picture of me and 15 Interesting facts...


1. I have worked at UVU as the Assistant Director over the Intramural Department for 4 years now and have had 3 bosses in that time frame.
2. I am completely obsessed with the Jonas Brothers! I absolutely LOVE their music because it is clean good wholesome music. I one day plan on meeting them and letting them know how much their music means to me.
3. Reading is my number one passion... which is probably a great thing for someone who wants to get a master's in Library Science..
4. Genealogy is another big passion of mine. I love finding out about my ancestors! I try to focus a lot on their life history so that I really can feel a connection to them.
5. My current dream job would be to be an archivist up at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. That way I would be working in a library but also applying my passion of family history.
6. I am currently working on writing my life history out and making it into a book. I am hoping at this point to have one book that is focused on my life from birth until after getting divorced and then from there I will use my blog to keep track of my history.
7. My favorite TV Shows are: Jonas L.A. and Greek
8. My nephew was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy recently and I plan on being there for him and doing a LOT of fund raising to help him out.
9. I love photography! I want to get better at taking pictures and then keep doing what it takes to constantly improve.
10. I collect shot glasses... I got my first one when I was around 15 from my grandparents, who I think used them to do something with their medication. Since then I collect them whenever I travel somewhere and I also have a lot of friends who bring me one back from wherever they go on vacation.
11. I secretly love it when I am running errands with my niece and she looks at me and says, "Jaime... You're my mom." It makes me really smile! I also love getting compliments from others about what a "cute little girl I have"
12. I would love to start my own craft business. I get this from my mom, who at one time had her own business and used to have booths at craft shows. I grew up watching her do this and LOVED going to these shows and walking around.
13. I really want to learn to quilt. Not so much the intricate details of the stitching but doing all kinds of cool piecing. I found this blog where I found the cutest rag quilts and that will be my first project. I would love to do at least one for each season to drape over my couch in my future home.
14. I secretly (or sometimes not so secretly) really miss playing soccer and long to get back into it, and probably would if I could figure out a way to get my ankle to cooperate with me. It used to be a HUGE part of my life and losing it was really hard on me. It was probably one of the toughest decisions I have had to make.
15. For some reason I really love picture frames and would love to collect them. I found some unfinished wood ones for $1 at the craft store and want to make some really cute frames from them.

30 Days to Get to Know Me: Day 1

Today's Topic: Who are you?

I am actually super happy to be able to answer this one! I have finally gotten to the point where I can do it and feel for the most part satisfied. This summer semester I took a class at school called "7 Habits for Highly Effective People". One of the assignments we had to do was a mission statement. We did this in a 3 step process. The first thing we did was make a collage about us. We had to look at four areas in our life and where we really wanted to be. The four areas were: Spiritual, Physical, Mental and Emotional. My list looked something like this:

Spiritual: Christ centered, look to the temple, "Elect Lady" and firm in the faith.
Physical: Children, wife, traveler, photographer, genealogist, writer, live in Boston
Mental: Grad school, knowledgeable
Emotional: Love, acceptance, empathy, compassion, happiness, positive attitude, never give up, stand up for belief and live the dream.

Here is a copy of what my collage ended up looking like:

It is kinda hard to see everything so I will explain the meaning behind it all. Starting in the left corner: I have a picture of Emma Smith and under her name the words "Elect Lady" because Emma is my role model and I want to live a life like hers where she was always there for her husband. Next to her is a picture of Scarlett O'Hara who is another one of my role models because one she got something into her head she went for it and never gave up. Next to her I have written the words "Welcome to my Life 2007-08" which is what I named my blog book. Through this book I became a writer. Next to this is written the word "empathy" Next to that is a picture of the temple with a quote that reads "You are never lost when you can see the temple" under it. Under my blog title is the quote "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." I have this because I want to have love. Next to my quote is a copy of a pedigree chart because I want to become a professional genealogist. Going back over to the left under Emma is the word "happiness" Next to that is the word Boston and a copy of a pamphlet for the grad school I wanted to go to there. In the center is a picture of Christ because I want to live a Christ centered life. Next to Christ is a picture of Captain Moroni because he is an example of someone who is firm in the faith. Next to Captain Moroni is a picture of books because I want to have knowledge. Back to the left side at the bottom is a picture of a passport with the words "World Traveler" written under it. Next to it is a picture of the Jonas brothers and their quote of "Living the Dream!" which is the motto they live by and one I want to adopt. Next to that is the words "Positive Attitude" Next to it is a picture of a camera because I love photography. Next to the camera is the word "compassion" Under the camera is the quote "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, its' about learning to dance in the rain" I love this quote because it reminds me to look for the positive. The last thing on my collage is the quote by Nathan Hale that says "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Nathan Hale was an amazing man who stood up for what he believed.

So after the collage we went into making a rough draft. There were 7 different things we had to answer.
1. Mission Summary
2. Roles
3. Role Models
4. Bucket List
5. Talents and Gifts
6. Quotes
7. Principles

This assignment was amazing for me! I was able to really look at myself and what I really want out of life. I won't go into the details because I just realized how much I have been writing.

The final step was our final draft, which we were supposed to make artistic. This is finally where this all ties in to Who I am. My final looks something like this:

I am a:

Daughter
Sister
Aunt
Niece
Cousin
Princess...

30 Days to Get to Know Me...

I came upon people doing something they call a 30 day challenge where they have different things to write about themselves for 30 days. I loved the concept of this but haven't been able to do it due to lack of time with my summer classes. Now that I have finally finished my finals I have time to get started. I want to kinda be different and so I am going to mix the order up some.

Day 1: Who are you?
Day 2: A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.
Day 3: A habit you wish you didn't have
Day 4: Nicknames that you have and why
Day 5: A picture of you and your friends
Day 6: What do you think about your friends?
Day 7: Favorite Super hero and why
Day 8: The meaning behind your blog's name
Day 9: How did you find out about blogs and why you made one
Day 10: Pictures of places you have been
Day 11: Another picture of yourself
Day 12: Something you are proud of accomplishing
Day 13: A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 14: Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
Day 15: Put your iPod on shuffle: first ten songs that play
Day 16: Another picture of you and your friends
Day 17: What I would find in your bag
Day 18: A picture of you and your family
Day 19: Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 20: Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21: Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 22: Short term goals for this month and why
Day 23: Something you crave for a lot
Day 24: A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 25: A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then
Day 26: Why are you doing this 30 day challenge?
Day 27: What makes you different from everyone else?
Day 28: A letter to your parents
Day 29: A letter to someone who has hurt you
Day 30: In this past month, what have you learned?

My Blog Book...

One thing I have written down on my bucket list is to publish a book. When I say that I don't necessarily mean to publish one that will become popular or that people will necessarily read. So I decided to publish a blog book. I took my blogs from the beginning through 2008 and from there I went through each blog and made it look like I wanted it to. It ended up being 102 pages! I then went to lulu.com and published it. I spent around $35 to get it published and sent to me. I am so excited to finally get this and see how amazing this really is!