I Survived!

I made it through finals week! Yay! I do not like finals, not even a little bit! If you have gone to college you know what I am talking about.

I am feeling much better now. I am still getting headaches every day, but not the migraines I was getting. I am very grateful for that! On Wednesday I got so sick again from the migraine that I was throwing up. So I made my wait to the health center and saw a doctor. She pulled up my CT scan and blood work from the hospital visit the previous Friday. My white blood cell count was high, and the scan showed that I probably had sinusitis. She prescribed an antibiotic and decongesting medicine for me. I went home and took a long nap (sorry I missed you call Sadie, and that I am a slacker and haven't gotten back to you yet. Thank you for thinking of me!) I have seen improvement in the intensity of my head aches since then. My mom knew I probably had sinusitis all along! Too bad those stupid ER doctors didn't figure it out. It would have saved me 5 days of being miserable!

On a more exciting note...after finals were finished I got my hair done. I dyed it darker and cut more layers in it, but it is still really long. It's kind of fun! A nice change. My mom flew down to Utah on Friday morning and she got her hair done too.


On Saturday morning we woke up and got ready to take off for Idaho. On the way home to Boise we stopped along the way to see family. First we stopped at Jon and Gina's house. Brian and Liberty were there with their kids also. It was fun to see everyone at once! I absolutely love Jon and Gina's girls they are so fun! When we came to the door all of them ran over and gave Mom and I big hugs! They immediately offered us some cake, they are so cute! I haven't seen Brian and Lib's kids in so long! They didn't remember me at all, but that is ok. They have grown up so much! All of the adults sat around and chatted and caught up on each other's lives. It was really fun. I love my family! We continued on our drive to Boise, and then a few hours later stopped in Gooding. We drove thru town and saw the round building and guessed that Aunt Kay Lynn would be there. Sure enough she was! haha. We went in and visited while Kay Lynn was finishing up a quilt that she was making. Klyn came by and visited with us. It was really fun to get to see so much family in one day! I love the Cheneys!

I am home in Boise now. Yay! We were lucky because we beat the snow for the most part. The last 20 minutes of our drive was snowy. Since we have been home in Boise it has been snowing off and on. It will be a white Christmas! I hope all is well with each of you. Peace and Love!

What a headache...A Really Bad One Too!

So I started out super motivated with my new blog, new goals, new motivation for consistency with my routine. This week was the last week of classes for the semester so I have been extremely busy, but I did not want to use that as an excuse. Then I stared getting these headaches around Tuesday. They were frustrating and at first only lasted for about an hour or two.

Then by Thursday around noon I suddenly had this really intense headache just come over me all of the sudden. It wasn't gradual at all. I tied to tough it out and go about my day writing papers for the end of semester in my classes. Then by Thursday night my headache had gotten so mad it actually made me nauseated. I actually ended up throwing up. Right after that I went to bed (didn't get to finish the paper that was due that night). It took me a while to fall asleep with the pain, the over the counter stuff that I was taking wasn't helping at all.

When I woke up Friday morning I felt much better. But after just two hours went past my intense head ache came back again. I went to the Urgent Care center to be seen. The doctor asked me what was going on, when I told him this was by far the worst head ache I had ever had he refunded my co-pay and told me that I had to go to the hospital. Now, I had a VERY important meeting that I absolutely could not miss at 3:30PM so I waited until after my meeting to go to the hospital. I was not feeling well at all before the meeting. I was counting down the minutes until it started. But strangely when I got into the meeting I was doing just fine. Eventually I could feel myself getting sick again so I excused myself from the meeting about an hour and fifteen minutes later. I was walking to the car and (this is really gross I am sorry to share this with you skip ahead if you would like) suddenly this sick feeling in my stomach came over me and I couldn't hold it. I had to lean over in the grass, luckily it was in a corner where no one else was around and it was a Friday afternoon when no one was on campus. But still! Gross! I hurried straight home with my intense headache getting worse and worse. When I got home I brushed my teeth and rinsed with mouthwash a few times. Then went back to my car and drove to the hospital.

I checked into the hospital with what was expected to be an hour wait. Which I was waiting for a room to open up for me I had to go to the bathroom and throw up again. Finally I was placed in a room. I was in so much pain from both my headache and nausea by this point I wasn't functioning well. Before the doctor got to me I threw up again. Finally he saw me and said he would order some meds to help me out. I was sent to get a scan of my head to make sure everything was ok. When they got me back in the room I was throwing up about every 15 minutes. Originally I thought they would do a scan of my head, see everything was ok, give me a shot and send me home. I was not realizing that this was a much bigger deal than that! So I called my aunt to come help me. I am sooooo lucky to have relatives that live near me! She made it to the hospital and rubbed my neck for me and comforted me. The results from the scan came back clear, and the doctor finally put an IV in me and gave me the real medicines to help me out! Within an hour I was free of pain and nausea, but totally out of it, haha.

We discovered that I had my first migraine ever! Man those things are absolutely miserable! Now when people say that have a migraine I KNOW they are not just complaining they are really going through some intense stuff! I was hospitalized because of a migraine! They think it was caused from a tension headache that built into a migraine. I have been having headaches all day today, too. But I am trying to stay on top of them with medicines so that they don't get out of control and turn into a migraine.

The moral of the story is, TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY! If you have stress or tension in your muscles, invest in massage therapy or physical therapy. Your body needs to be taken care of, because if its not then your aches and pains will become unmanageable.

So that is my excuse for the week! I worked out faithfully Monday and Tuesday, then the rest of the week I was in a lot of pain and not able to get to the gym. Will you guys please forgive me and let me repent next week? Even though next week is finals so I might not do that great then either... I have also slacked on reading my 26 pages of scriptures every day to accomplish some end of the year goals I have. Oh well, I'll just have to play catch up with that too!

I love you all. Hope everything is going well!

Good Conversations...That Each Connected To Hawaii

Today has been a great day. I had the opportunity to talk to some people that I haven't talked to in a long time. First I talked to Karly Jo, my best friend. I met Karly the first time I lived in Hawaii, we were random roommates. Karly and I have been each other's other half ever since. Right now we are in different states. We are pretty good about texting each other frequently but it is good to have a real conversation over the phone sometimes. We talked on the phone for a couple of hours. Some of the time was spent venting, which we love to do with each other. We're pretty good at holding things in and saving it for the best friend, haha. But the best part of the conversation was spent talking about what we have been through since we have known each other. We have both had some of the highest and lowest points of our lives since we have known each other (probably not THE highest and lowest but some definite ones). It was very uplifting and inspiring to look back at the stupid things we have done and just laugh about, well, how stupid we were. We have so many funny memories to share, and so many obstacles that we have overcome. We decided we should co-write a book together. It would probably be pretty good. Maybe a National Best Seller? haha.


Goofing around in Hawaii.


Our House on North Shore.


Turtle Bay Resort

I also had the chance to talk to another good friend Carter. I also met him when I lived in Hawaii, but it was the second time when I was doing my internship. His parents were some of the first people I met on the island of Kauai and their family became some of my best friends. Bruce and Ellen took my co-worker Katie and I on an amazing airplane tour over the island. They have their own business, Wings Over Kauai, you should check them out if you ever go there! But anyway, that is how I met Carter their oldest son. We had a lot of good times over the summer, hiking, camping, chillin at the beach, singing, laughing, talking. I haven't seen him since August. He goes to school in Montana. We call each other a few times a month. We usually talk about our great memories and how cool it will be when we meet up to go snowboarding together. Today when I talked to him he was in LAX on a layover on his way home to Kauai. I am so jealous of him! I wish I was from Kauai so that I could go "home" there for Christmas.


Our First Adventure Together, Opaekaa Falls


Campfire Adventures


Camping at PoliHale

Thinking about Kauai made me think about my internship with Del Sol, and the fantastic people that I worked with all summer. So I gave them a call while they were at work. I got to talk to my boss Wayne, and my manager Jane. It was so great to get to say hello and catch up! They are both doing well although they don't like the heavy rain they have been getting, haha. Wayne was happy that he at least didn't have to shovel rain. He's from upstate New York so he definitely knows what that is like! Jane is from Montana so she would know, too. Talking to them made me miss working with them. I hope someday that I can make it back to Kauai to at least visit them.


Our Cute Little Store


Left to Right Katie, Me, and Jane Busy Working!


Working By Myself on a Wednesday, No Cruise Ships=Not Busy


It is funny that all of the good conversations that I had today connected to Hawaii in one way or another. Man I love that place! It has become so much apart of who I am from living on both Oahu and Kauai. Don't be surprised when I move there there for good.

Mean People Vs. Nice People

Today started out as a good day. I slept ok last night. I woke up and felt good about things. I got my work out clothes on and went downstairs to the gym at my complex. I speed walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes while listening to the scriptures on my iPod and reading along. Man it feels so good to accomplish both of my daily goals at the same time! haha. Is that cheating? I'm not sure. I hope not because it is sure convenient! After I walked for 40 minutes I ran upstairs to hurry and shower before I need to walk up to campus for class.

When I came upstairs I checked my email really quick. I had gotten an email from a girl who wanted to buy the Linkin Park concert tickets that I had posted an online add for. I had been coordinating with her via email and she turned out to be a really big jerk. I told her that the tickets might not be available anymore because my friend was going to sell them to someone else for more money. She got really mad at me and accused me of fraud, and false advertising. I told her that because she was rude to me I preferred not to sell her the tickets at all. Then she demanded that I sell them to her or she would sue me. I won't bore you with all of the details of the story, but it was the most ridiculous thing ever! It just boggles my mind sometimes how people are so disrespectful and unkind to other's, especially other people they don't even know! I definitely did not want to reward her unkind actions towards me by giving her the tickets! Needless to say, my feeling were hurt (what can I say, sometimes I am overly sensitive) and it reminded me that I need to be more patient, kind and loving towards others.

This reminds me of another story. When I lived in Kauai this summer I had a group of really close friends. For a while we would hang out at my place every night and play card games until super late sometimes. We were never loud in the house, or inconsiderate or our neighbors. But one time after playing card games until pretty late (probably 1AM) I was walking my friends out to their car. As we were walking out one of them had cracked a joke so all of us started laughing really hard. All of the sudden the old guy who lived on the hill just above us yelled out of his window, "shut up you A holes!" Unfortunately sound travels upward, and everyone in Hawaii sleeps with their windows open. I was absolutely shocked that this guy who I had never even seen before was swearing at me for laughing! I felt really bad for waking him up, but I was honestly unaware of how loud our laughing was. It had maybe been 10 seconds. It seemed to me that his reaction was way out of line and the result of a very short temper. He came down to our house the next day an apologized to me in a round-about way. That guy was a jerk to some other people too. The management office had already had some complaints from people about him.

I really do not understand why people are so mean sometimes! As Jack Johnson would say "where'd all the good people go?" haha. I think people that are like that just have something missing from their lives. There is something that makes them not at peace. I pray that I can always keep myself in check, that I will not react. Sometimes it is hard, and I will admit I'm not always really good at cooling off before I say or do things. But in general, I like to think that I respect people enough to treat them decently.


I had to get back on and add another little side note to this blog. I just went to Olive Garden for dinner because I haven't been grocery shopping in forever and I needed dinner! haha. I got the soup and salad meal. The minnistone soup was fantastic and of course the salad is always amazing too! Then I got alfredo dipping sauce for my breadsticks. (I have no idea how many words I am not spelling correctly here, hopefully none hehe). Our waitress was so good. She asked me if I wanted more soup and I asked if I could get some to go. Sometimes they are sticklers about that and only let you have as much as you eat there because it is unlimited. But she totally got me soup to go, and salad, and breadsticks, and alfredo!!! It totally made my night! There are still nice people in the world. I really needed it too. Food makes me happy, nice people make me happy, that's the moral of the story! In case you were wondering I gave her a good tip! :)

Go Me! Workin Out!

I am getting back into the routine of heading to the gym a few times a week. I am really determined to get back into really good shape. I mean REALLY good shape. I want to lose about 20 pounds and 8% body fat. I'll let you know how things are going as I keep working on it. I will be working with a personal trainer, which I think is just the thing I need to get things going. I met with him today for the initial consultation. He said that in order to get down to where I want to be, which he thinks is a really good goal, I need to have between a 500-1000 calorie deficit daily. Which basically means I need to burn between 500 and 1000 calories more than I consume each day. For now, my goal is to do at least 30 minutes of cardio about 5 times a week and to write down everything that I eat. I know right now I am eating WAY more than 1400 calories, which is what he said I should be shooting for haha. I probably eat like 2200, I love food!

I have found this really cool website, thanks to Women's Fitness magazine. It is called RUNNER+. It is a website where you have a profile and you can log all of the runs that you do. It tracks your runs on charts and shows the calendar of how much you ran on which day. But the coolest part is that it has challenges that other people on the site create which you can join. It is really awesome and so far has really been motivating me! I love to come home after I have been at the gym and sign in and log my run and see how I am doing compared to the other people at my level. The awesome thing is that it has people from every level, beginner to very advanced hard core people. Maybe one day I will be hard core, but for now I am just your average Jane trying to get into shape!

Check it out, this is the link to my profile but you can see what RUNNER+ is about from there:

I also want to announce that I have decided to separate my life blog from my fitness blog. So if you are interested in my fitness progress then check it out at GoMeGetFit.blogspot.com Thanks for supporting me!

This will be me!!!

Be Thou Humble, Charity Never Faileth

Today has been a rough day for me. But I have had the chance to think a lot about how grateful I am for my life and my amazing family. Sometimes things stress you out. But you just have to get over yourself. I absolutely LOVE Mondays because I get to email my best friend in the whole world, my brother! He is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Ventura County, CA. I have decided to share our conversation today:


Hey brother.

Man, I have a lot of lessons to learn. Today I had a moment of emotional weakness and I felt like I needed to talk to someone about what was on my mind. I started going through the list of people that I would want to talk to and it suddenly came to me that I can talk to my Heavenly Father. I always forget that I can talk to him at anytime anywhere. I knealt in prayer, I'm not going to lie it wasn't the most amazing prayer ever or even the most comforting feeling. But it reminded me that I need to call Heavenly Father as often or more often than I call Mom everyday, haha. It is so easy to get truckin through life taking on the world on your own and to forget that you have a "lifeline" or a "fallback" person, that you don't have to do it on your own.

I have overcome so many things. So much of overcoming these things was just overcoming myself. I can tell when I lose my focus because out of no where I will crave my weakness. It will be completely random. I will be driving down the street in Provo and feel stressed out for a second and all the sudden have that craving. I think it is a process to learn how to be so indulged in the gospel and your persuit of the Lord's will that you don't crave your weaknesses.

This month's visiting teaching message was charity. I did my visiting teaching yesterday. I had the opportunity to sit and think about what the Christmas season is for. The message was from Howard W. Hunter. He talked about how "Those who are filled with the love of Christ do not seek to force others to do better; they inspire others to do better, indeed inspire them to the persuit of God." It made me think about my relationships with my family, and friends. I am fasting and praying that I will be able to have the light of Christ, and be so full of charity that I will be able to inspire the people that I love the most to do better. My mind is just running, I'm trying to think of things that I can do to help others. I think that in order to help them, first I need to be strengthened. I think that focusing on me and what I can do to improve, will help me receive inspiration on how to help them.

Yesterday I went to the church website and downloaded a bunch of stuff from the audio library. I downloaded some music and the intro to the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I decided I am going to try to learn spanish from reading the Book of Mormon. I have also decided that I am going to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year. That means I need to read like 25 pages a day. Mom said she is going to do it with me. I need to ask Dad if he will, too.

This week has been a good week. I have been sick. I don't know what is wrong with my health but it is out of control. I feel tired and sick everyday. I am going to start taking some herbal suppliments and I got a personal trainer at the gym. So hopefully I can start to get a lot better soon.

This week is the last week of classes so I have a TON of school stuff to do. Next week is finals. It is going to be a crazy 2 weeks!

Oh man, I love you so much! I hope that everything is going really really well for you and that you are happy. I think of you constantly and pray for you too. I miss you and love you so much! I am so proud of you. Keep working super hard and doing the best that you can, then rely on the Lord for the rest. Keep the faith!

Peace!

LOVE LOVE LOVE,
Ana Lee



I am completly dumbfounded by the spirit that I get from your E-mails. I love you so much, and yes everything you are saying is absolutly true, about most of our challanges come from changing ourselves. I have learned the lossong of being a light to others while on my mission. We learn very clearly here the lesson of agency. President Ellsworth has told us "you cannot fix the problems of others" It is so true. We shouldn't even try, it is up to tohers to choose rightousness and to fiz their own problems, all we can do is the best we can, and love them. I love you so much. you are an example for me. You have always paved the path to show me what to do..... You're getting a packgage soon :)

Love,
Elder Stephen

You Tube

Sometimes before I go to bed I watch a featured You Tube video that is also rated high. This is one that I watched the other night. I thought it was cute and clever.

Where I Have Been

create your own personalized map of the USA


create your personalized map of europe

I have been extremely blessed in my life to travel a ton and see so many beautiful places! I have the best memories from all of my traveling. Before I die I want to see all 50 of the United States of America. I also want to see every European country! I would love to just move over there and live for a year after I graduate, that would bed cool! I also want to go to Asia and Australia. I wish traveling wasn't so expensive! haha