couldn't have asked for more

me and my dall

Oh my... I'm out of words !!

words can't express the weekend I had.

I've tried using words like ...remarkable, inspiring, exciting,uplifting,delightful and refreshing but... they don't give it justice !

I was fortunate enough to have Jennifer join me on the trip up north and was able to have dinner with my gals (chantel jen and me) at Cheesecake Factory mmm.. our friendship has meant literally everything to me as of late, I have been truely blessed to have the choicest friends anyone could've ask for.

I totally made a list of all the things I wanted to do on the trip

- Park cafe breakfast

-The dodo

-Charlie Chows

-Este pizza

-Happy sumo

-Tasty Thai

- Pibs exchange

-American apparel

- Temple

Just to name a few haha ...

It all turned out better than I expected though. Instead of the Park Cafe we had Kneaders all you can eat french toast (which I will say is like food heroin in your mouth !) Happy Sumo funky roll and thai peanut stir fry is simply divine. Este pizza garlic knobs (knots) you just can't beat it !!

My sister inlaw Dallas was my bossom buddy all weekend long .. We shopped at pibs exchange and got sweet deals and strolled around downtown and took pictures !!

She embodies true kindess and sincerity !! oh how I love her ...she's talented, beyond creative and the most wonderful mother to the most gorgeous lil boy

to ever grace this earth...baby G (I dare say hehe)

She has such a passion for photography and I was so excited she wanted to have a photoshoot with me ! -here are just (some) of the beautiful photos she captured..

http://dallphoto.blogspot.com/2011/04/me-me.html

- Conference was literally all for me.. every word spoken was to me (period)

my soul was deeply and profoundly touched, my heart was about to burst out of my chest and I wished it never would end !

I would love to share all my notes and thoughts I had but ... I'll admit my note take'n skills are a lil messy ..it works for me but you'd all look at it and think to yourselves ... "what the ??" so I'll spare you the trouble in just saying that it was a miracle for me to have been there !!

oh and ... thank you Olsen family for treating me to the best brunch buffet I've ever had between conference sessions !!

such a blessed weekend I will never forget !!

mr. grahm

It's not often that I get to see this beautiful boy but when I do..

he seems to be more beautiful then I remember !!

some things I learned about my lil nephew ..

.he loves birds

.sweeping & mopping

.being photographed

.loves other kids

.he needs some warming up too but ..

when he lets you into his lil world he's refreshingly delightful !

.when you first see him he rolls his eyes as if hes trying to hide .. so cute !!

.he lets you steal a kiss on his check and tickle his ears

.he gives bones and waves bye bye

darn this kid is just too cute..

I'm so grateful for every second I get to see him

I hope he can come to know his Aunt meme more !!

going forward with youthful vigor

After much frustrated prayer Matthew and I have chosen to divorce.

I share this news with you all because I want everyone to know how mutual and loving this decision is for us. Matthew and I love each other very much and ultimately want the best for each other and what we would have to sacrifice to make our marriage work would be detrimental to our individual happiness. I see always a respectful and close friendship with Matthew but I know I will have to grieve a little over the life I had envisioned with Matthew.

Oh but how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who gives me trials and comes to my aid so that I may learn and become a stronger woman. I have such a better understanding of myself and what I need to be happy. I've been so blessed with the gift of realization and comfort. I have been given an unmistakable sense of peace knowing this was right for both of us! I'm so grateful for the lessons learned and the time we shared together ... I don't feel like a failure or have huge amounts of regret. I know that we put forth a lot of effort into making it work but all in all the decision has been made so .. I have an overwhelming sense that I can be able to move forward with youthful vigor and with a bright hope for the future.

I must express much appreciated love to the entire Kirk family. I know I must have at times been very hard to understand I was very quiet. I kept to myself a lot because I was in such an ugly place I didn't recognize myself.. that still doesn't excuse my neglect as a daughter in law for that I deeply apologize. You all are such choice people and I will never forget you individually and collectively. You all showed me so much beauty in the simple things of this life. You have enlightened my mind in countless ways and I am so greatly indebted to you all. I'm so sorry for any hurt or discomfort I may have caused you, your brother, son or grandson Matthew.. please know it wasn't my intent. What love I will carry with me throughout my life for you all .

I need to also thank my own family for their love and support. You warn me of dangers, you strive to protect me from hardships, and I have an overwhelming sense of that love you all have for me .. To my friends thank you for staying on the phone when I know you are so busy with work and school.. I'm sure there were other things you were doing when I called but thank you for being so understanding and your overall concern for me . To my lil dancer girls how heart wrenching it was to have to leave you .. dance with all the passion of your heart and knock'em dead at competition and the upcoming recital .... keep in touch too

There is truely so much I have to be thankful for !! I'm so scared yet excited to move back to St. George, my home! I have missed it's unique beauty and I pray that with the unfortunate new title I bear of being a divorcee will not overshadow the beauty there.

So what's next you may ask ?? I have a lot of things I wanna do and accomplish like run a 5k, join a performing dance group, sing in Norm Listers choir, travel, work at a salon, go to school studying Interior or Architectural design, and possibly study abroad !!

Stay tuned and see what happens next for me ...

some competition

I've had the pleasure of working with this young lady ..Nicole on a solo routine at the studio

Nicole has a bright future in dance and her hard work has shown for sure.

Our studio competed last weekend and I gotta say

I'm so blessed to be able to do what I love ..choreography

but man I sure do miss performing though !!

All the girls gave fantastic performances .. and seriously I am uplifted daily by these girls ..

I so much appreciated how at K.A.R when a routine would win they also recognized the teacher's & choreographers ... I was thrilled that she did such a wonderful job

yahoo... a top first place !!

can i keep 'em ?

Meet Toby .. he's a cocker spaniel and he's pretty cute !!

but.... I dunno if I wanna keep him.. keep him .. he's a puppy from a friend of ours at church and I said I would love to take him for a week just for fun. I've had him for about three days now and he's darling but I dunno if I wanna deal with a puppy right now their a lot of work !!

oh and Lizzy is such a brat to him she's so used to being the queen of her nest

she just growls at Toby whenever he gets in her face ..

it's hilarious so for now I'll just keep having snuggle time with him until I've had my fill

Cleveland Orchestra

This is a funny story .. Matt & I listen to classic radio a lot in the car and while we were driving along one day they played a short clip of a piano concerto that literally sounded like the pianist was pounding on the keys .. and the announcer asked

" what did the pianist have to do differently to play this piece ?"

I answering sort of under my breath and said he or she had to play with his forearm or elbows or maybe even playing with their feet ... Matt quickly picked up his cell phone and began to dial the radio's number..

I said you're really going to call them ?? ( not even sure If I was correct)

We'll to make this shorter we ended up answering correctly

the pianist had to use his forearm and elbows to play !!

So the next evening we won tickets to enjoy a night of music from The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall ... It was such a gorgeous theater filled with very sophisticated music..

we loved it ... thank you Matt for calling !!

a grateful 24

Some of you already know that my Birthday is stretched over a weekend or sometimes a week depending on what day of the week it falls.. This year it happened to be on a sunday so we celebrated all weekend long. Sunday started off well... the ward had a linger longer with heaps of good food, I'd like to think it was because they all new it was my birthday ... haha

Then I had been thinking it would be kinda fun to have

a barbie cake like I did when I turned like 10 ?? or something

ya know the ones with the barbie in the middle and the cake was her skirt.. yeah!

We'll my mother in law was so cute and made me a homemade" picture" barbie cake ..

it was adorable & so sweet !!

Monday Matt took me to Pittsburgh where we spent the entire day going to Ikea, Trader Joes Anthropologie, thrift & consignment stores
We wanted to go to art museums too but...

unfortunetly they didn't realize it was my birthday weekend and they were closed

(not cool)

Oh well I still had seriously the best day ever

We ate Chipotle, rode the incline and enjoyed the city view. We drank yummy hot cocoa

I played dress up at a dress shop!! wohoo that was fun (I looked pretty dang hot) ..

we had a character artist draw a picture of us hehe it turned out freaking awesome- I'll share that picture with on a later post ... We shopped at H&M and I bought a cute lil dress for $7 bucks that was normally like $30 can't beat that .. we'll I take that back nothing beats the C.P.K red velvet cake it's a must have every year !!

Thank you all for remembering me on my birthday

& all the days in between the past 24 years, I'm so blessed and grateful for them

And a huge thank you to my boo for treating me on my all weekend long love you !!

bring on 2011

food, movies, games & fun.. helped ring in the new year for us

and some sparkling apple cider mmm..

A big thanks to some sweet friends that took us to a Cleveland Cavaliers game too

wishing all of you a blessed 2011

make it great !!