endure it well...

over the last five weeks, i have experienced chronic joint pain. pain in my shoulders, knees, and wrists. i have thought long and hard about what could be causing this. at first it thought, it must be the long days i've been working, on my feet, with terrible shoes, and that it would clear up in a week or so.
when things continued to progress, and blood tests came back, i knew that this had to be a bit more serious then what i had originally thought. luckily, all three blood tests that i've taken have come back negative for rheumatoid arthritis. i was baffled. even the doctors are baffled. what could this possibly be? i've thought from the beginning, that it has to be a virus, and that it would clear up on it's own. but as things continued to worsen, and i became almost immobile, i knew that i needed some help.
i had had a blessing from my dad when we were in slc, but i knew i needed another one. this time for a little comfort and support. i called my friend michael and he and his wife came over and he gave me a blessing.
the most comforting thing about both blessings is that they both said i would be healed. and even though the doctors don't really know what's going on, i know that if i put my faith and trust in the Lord, everything will work out how it's supposed to.
of course our faith is tested when we have trials, so one night i searched "enduring trials" into my gospel library app on my iPad. i saw a talk by elder eyring called "in the strength of the Lord". as i lay in my bed reading, i felt comforted and i knew i would be healed. i don't know when, but i know that by enduring this experience, i will grow and learn from it.
what i have learned so far is the love and support that i have from my family. i don't know if i was/am too proud to admit that i'm hurting, but somehow my mom and dad could sense it and they came right when i needed them. i'm definitely grateful for them and their love.

elder eyring
april 2004-saturday morning session

"as time passes, the world grows more challenging, and our physical capacities slowly diminish with age.  it is clear that we will need more than human strength. the Psalmist was right: ' but the human salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.'"
we have trials to face because our Heavenly Father loves us. his purpose is to help us qualify for the blessing of living with Him, and His Son, Jesus Christ, forever in glory and in families.
'and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.'
that explanation helps us understand why we face trials in life. they give us the opportunity to prove ourselves faithful to God.
so many things beat upon us in a lifetime that simply enduring them may seem almost beyond us. that's what the words in the scripture 'ye must... endure to the end"
it can surely seem that way to a person faced with erosion of health and physical strength which may come early or late in life for them or for those they love. but the test a loving God has set before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty. it is to see if we can endure it well."

this talk gave me a lot of comfort.
and i know that i can endure this trial well.

lulu n' mo

i sure love this little one.

she is a lot of fun.

i think i'm her favorite...

two states at once...

well, i'm home. oops. 

been home for about two weeks.

i should have blogged sooner, but there have been some recent happenings, 

that have prevented me from doing so...

anyway, 

i. loved. pennsylvania. 

i had so much fun. my group was the best. 

i honestly didn't want to leave them. they made the two weeks bearable/livable. 

here's the play by play....

as you see from the previous post, i made it to philadelphia in one piece.

so i guess we leave off with dinner at the restaurant. 

we met up with the other trainers and headed to the restaurant. 

we sat down with the market partner and went over our expectations and what our 

job would entail for the next two weeks. afterwards, 

we got to enjoy a lovely dinner at firebirds. yum!

 we're special.

left to right: nick, myself, scott, jacob, lauren and diego

we got to work the next day. we had long hours and when we would get off work, we'd be starving.

so, we'd head to some restaurant that was open at 10pm. (ugh. i hate eating this late.)

one night, we headed to olive garden...

don't we look excited.

we didn't get much opportunity to explore the local chadds ford, pa/ wilmington, de area

but one night we did happen to go into west chester, pa for sushi. it was so yummy and west chester was a fun college city and had some young folk there.

so to recap briefly....

long hours. late dinners. great people.

okay, my first day off was that sunday. i debated on going to church. 

i wanted to go to the singles ward in philadelphia, 

but i was forewarned that philly isn't the safest city. 

so, i looked for another ward close by.

the ward started at 2:30, and at this time it was 1:30. i had plenty of time, 

but i wanted to quickly drive by the chapel, to make sure i could find it, 

then once i found it, i'd go grab lunch somewhere.

the closest ward was by the university of delaware. so college town. nice. 

well, i missed the turn for the church, and ended up driving into the front part of u of d housing.

and i found this house....

i. love. it.

why they don't have houses like this on the west coast is terribly disappointing.

 this house is amazing.

to make along story short, i pull into the church parking lot 15 minutes before church starts,

and not a soul or car was in the parking lot. weird, right?

there is always a car in the parking lot. well, not this one.

i got nervous that maybe i was in the wrong spot. 2:15 turns into 2:26 and still nothing.

i walk up to the doors, and yes, i am at the family history center.

seriously? lame. the church needs to update their address. i was bummed.

i ended back in chadds ford and grabbed lunch at panera bread and listened to conference talks.

my own little church. that's okay, right?

so i'll be honest. i was worried the whole time that the group

i was going with would just want to go out and party every night. which, is totally fine,

 but just not really the lifestyle that i choose to live or that i live.

i'd decided ahead of time that i would go out with them a few times,

and then hang back in the room the other nights.

well, lucky me, we only went out once. and it was for a birthday.

a twenty one year old birthday....

let's start there, shall we?

so, we thought that since it was nick's 21st birthday, we should take him out.

we took him to dinner after we got off work. pf changs. he'd never been, so we thought what the heck, let's take him to changs.

driving to changs. lauren, nick (on right) and scott.

don't worry, my flash wasn't working in the car on the ride over,

so jacob got this lovely shot, when the flash was working...

jacob and i

nick, lauren, and myself.

jacob and scott. fortunes

the gang at changs.

afterwards, we went to a local bar called duffers. they played pool,

drank some beers and i of couse did what i do best, danced.

don't worry, i was the dd.

 jaclyn, myself, and lauren

 jacob and lauren

 myself, lauren, jaclyn, and the manager of duffers.

 myself and lauren.

 myself, scott, and lauren.

 the birthday gang....

there was one part of the evening where we decided to take a photo,

i realized i was standing in front of the dart board.

i then noticed that there were some gentlemen playing darts.

i apologized and said i'd move. but then, not really realizing my size,

see i thought i was blocking the dart board just a little,

 i said they could play over me. overly confident, i know.

i was joking around, but they were serious. the guy with the darts

hands me wad of bills and says that if he hits me, i can keep the bills.

obviously, i like my eyes so i wanted to keep them, i kind of backed out.

but they weren't having it and neither was jacob. he stood behind me,

as if a dart was going to actually fly at my face, that he'd "save me."

 jacob talking me into staying....

 i was nervous.

but, look at all those bills....

 ahhh!!!!

 bullseye.

as it turns out, he was a professional dart player. 

and a gypsy. yes!

we picked out some music. finally our songs came one. let's dance!


sadly, this is the night where i took the most photos.
but we only had a few days left. which, duh, consisted of work.
but here are a few photos that i took at the end of our long work day..

we're a lot of fun. as you can see.

on the last day (sunday), lauren and scott had their last days off.
so lauren left to go back to north carolina and scott hung out and packed.
leaving jacob and i as the only trainers that day. we had fun, but we had
a lot of work. mock dines. training new employees. and running errands.
it was a lot.

doug and gretchen came all the way to pennsylvania,
and we drove into nyc that night.
so i had to say my goodbyes from the restaurant.
it was sad. i was sad to leave.
but we got out photo sesh on....

 i really miss these guys.

i guess if i say it at all, jacob is the most hilarious person ever.
so the last picture was kind of a recreation/courtesy laughs from me/being candid.
clearly we had a good time together.

 i was sad to go. i didn't want to say goodbye at all.

but, hopefully we'll all be in the next training group together.
i'd love that. as i'm sure they would also.

i've got the time....

since it's my first day off....

i might as well post a couple photos, couple, being the key word here, of my lack of adventure here in pennsylvania.

if you don't know why i'm clear across the country, firebirds just opened a new store in chadds ford, pennsylvania. and since i'm a certified trainier for firebirds, i had the opportunity to come to pennsylvania to train some of the new staff. i got here the 3rd and i leave the 16th.

welcome to...

i was greeted by two gentlemen from nc and al. and it was lets be honest, weird. i had no idea what they looked like, so i had no idea who i was even looking for. we headed to the rental car and then met up with the rest of our team at the restaurant. we had a meeting to go over what we would be doing for the next two weeks. and then we were invited to enjoy a delicious dinner at the restaurant.

(pictures to come later. on the camera.)

we started working on tuesday oct. 4th.

we go in at 10 every morning and train new employees. since we are the third and final team to come into the store, we are mostly overseeing and observing, making sure that everything is done correctly.

my team consists of two back of house (boh/kitchen) employees, one from fredricksburg, va and one from duram, nc. and four front of house (foh/servers, host, etc.) employees. two servers, a guy and girl from winston-salem, nc and charlotte, nc. then another guy server from birmingham, al.

the foh team, we all get along really well it'll be kind of sad to leave them.

this next picture, is after a hard days work. we were ready to go home....

this is lauren from winston. and jacob from birmingham.

we have fun at work. as you can see.

we love 
firebirds.

she's done gone and got herself hitched.

my beautiful friend/former roommate, jamie

who we celebrated jam weekend 2001 with last month

is now officially mrs. winterton! woot!

here's a quick recap...

i flew in to john wayne on thursday night, and cami picked me up.

we headed straight over to the brides house, because i had been asked to do jame's make up.

i was nervous. not only is this the MOST important day of her entire life, but i've been asked to make her look stunning...eek. talk about nerve racking.

anyway, we got there, did a few needed reception things, and of course some random dancing, hitting people with random objects done by cami, katelin, and emily, which is always a treat to see.

then we tested jame with some make up. we tried some browns, but it just wasn't quite her. she wears minimal make up anyway, so less is more for her. luckily in my handy dandy make up kit that mags gave to me for christmas last year, had a few slips with some makeup ideas. we found one that she liked and it ended up working. phew!

i slept at cami's pad in dana point. she was so sweet and kind to let me stay there.

on friday morning, we met up with the crew, jamie, her sister brooke, katelin, emily, cami and myself all went to get manicures and pedicures. it was nice and relaxing.

after the mani/pedis we needed to pick up a few last minute things for the wedding, before the everson vs. winterton kickball game. so cami, me, katelin, and emily all headed to the irvine spectrum, stopped at nordstrom and anthropologie, which as i'm sure you know is never a good thing, and then headed up to the kickball game.

it was absolutely freezing! i was shivering, uncontrollably. hung out, got to know each other and then split up into teams. jamie even had hats made. ones with Es and one with Ws. needless to say, the eversons won! woohoo. we then had dinner up in the pavillion, el ranchito. delish!

we, of course had to take pictures after the game...

 l to r: cami, emily, jamie, katelin, me, jann.

(jann arrived during the kickball game.)

the gang, minus jamie.

then, wedding day....

i went over to jamie's parents house at 9:30 to do jamie's makeup. sadly, i don't have any pictures to document that i actually did it, so therefore, you'll have to just take my word for it. haha 

we did a real natural eye, and i put on some false lash enders to give her eye that extra pop! jamie has these great blue eyes, so i wanted to make those the main focus. she had purchased a great lip color and it just made everything come together! 

can't really see it, but you get the point.

her nephew was darling in his plaid jacket and polka dot bow tie. and her niece was diligent about holding up the train of her dress so it wouldn't drag.

 nephew boaden.

 cami with the flowers.

 me, em, and cam.

 em and cam.

 katelin, em, and cam.

 anna holding the train.

jimmy and his friends.

before everyone started arriving, malcolm and trent, who are both jimmy's friends were sitting on a park bench eating food that wasn't hors d'oeuvres, and when malcolm was finished, he started swinging. i thought to myself, i love swings, so naturally, i joined him.

jann took pictures while we swung for along time, then we got off. it was fun.

 we had a good time, as you can see....

she got married at the newport temple and it was a beautiful day, but while she was getting her pictures taken with her new hubby jimmy, we all headed to the clubhouse where she had some darling lawn games and hors d'oeuvres. we played horseshoes, croquet, and bocce ball. 

me and jann. 

bffs.

after we ate and played games, it was time for the ring ceremony.

we moved inside and then we ate food, and headed to the reception. 

not many picures at the ring ceremony, for obvious reason. 

reception time! it was in jamie's parent's backyard. lights strung across the top. and this was strictly just a dessert bar. she didn't have a cake, so her and jimmy cut into a yummy chocolate mousse pie. it was the most perfect evening with dancing too...

 old friends. blake, me, nate, and jann

so happy!

the music was good, so we danced....

 cami's parents are great dancers.

 jann and james karaoke...

"baby you're a firreeeworrrrkkkkkk"

 me n' em.

 me n' jann.

 the photographer mike.

 doing what he does best. getting low...

 it's kind of tradition for landon (jamie's brother) and i to take pictures together. 

we've got lots...

bouquet toss....

 garter...

final friend dance with the bride..

they pulled off in an old school porche.

it was perfect.

jamie looked beautiful and happier then i've ever seen her. 

the wedding was perfect. and it was perfect for her!

congratulations

mr. and mrs. jimmy winterton!