Laughter

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose." -Woody Allen

"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities." -Jean Houston

"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis." -Jack Handey, Saturday Night Live

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -E.E. Cummings

"Laughter is an instant vacation." -Milton Berle

"So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter." -Gordon W. Allport

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge

"I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, 'Ain't that the truth.'" -Quincy Jones

"Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks." -Henri Berson

"A man isn't poor if he can still laugh." -Raymond Hitchcock

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything." -Kurt Vonnegut

"You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants." -Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

"It is not a laugh, but merely a loud smile" -Author Unknown

"Seven days without laughter makes one weak." -Mort Walker

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Victor Hugo

"Laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life." -Hugh Sidey

"Laughter is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one place." -Josh Billings

"Carry laughter with you wherever you go." -Hugh Sidey

"Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects."-Arnold Glasow

"Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live." -Author Unknown

"The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter." -Mark Twain

"Nothing shows a man's character more that what he laughs at." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If every word I said could make you laugh, I'd talk forever..." -Unknown

Did you know::

Laughter lowers the levels of cortisol in the body. Cortisol suppresses the immune system. Lowering these levels enhances the work of the immune system and may prevent disease.

You can stimulate you heart and lungs, elevate your blood pressure and improve breathing capacity by laughing.

In terms of exercise, you can get the same benefits from laughing 100 time a day, as you can from 10 minutes of rowing.

15 minutes of laughter equals the benefit of 2 hours sleep.

One good belly laugh burns 3 1/2 calories.

Laughing for 15 seconds adds 2 days to your life span.

People smile only 35% as much as they think they do::

These facts may or may not be 100% true, but I'll take my chances with laughing more often. We've all heard it said that children laugh a couple hundred times a day while adults laugh less than ten. How sad is that? I think the world needs happier people. I think we need to laugh more often. Thank you to Landry who is my new laughing friend. Thank you for giggling with me during institute choir and after as we spend time together. Thank you for elongating my life by more than two days every time we see each other.

I don't know about you, but I sure do appreciate laughter in my life.

Update On Healthy

First of all, I feel great. I really do. My body doesn't have that gross "extra fluff on my bones" feeling, and I just feel cleaner inside. It's great. Second: it's been so hard!!! I love food so much that if I'm not careful from the moment I wake up, I will eat junk all day long without being able to stop. But! Water is my friend, and I feel a little more justified in eating a couple handfuls of peanut MnMs when I drink the required daily water. Third: I have been weighing myself daily, and I'm liking what I see. My average is now 5 lbs. less than it has been for the past 5 years. I really hope that it's not a fluke, and that I can keep it up.

Now for the goals. Week one: fail. I only accomplished a few of my week one goals, so I have a lot of room for improvement. Week two: same goals as week one. Apply for 8 jobs, go to the temple, work out every morning, floss every night, finish my now 8 week Book of Mormon challenge and get to bed earlier than 2 in the AM. One goal I did stick to is ... flossing! And I'm so happy! I'm sure my dentist is happy too. Gingivitis... banished! No more risks for gum diseases for me, thank you very much. Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good about life. I've had some really great dates this past week, and I'm learning more ins and outs of Cache Valley.

This next week will be better. I'll accomplish more of my goals and even if I don't, at least I'm still learning and growing.

Healthy Living

Yesterday I decided that I need to start making goals and proactively living my life. Here are a few of the goals I've made:

Get a job
Finish my six week Book of Mormon challenge
Go to the temple weekly
Apply to be a ski instructor
Save enough for next semester
Apply for various random scholarships
Lose ten lbs. and get toned through my arms and legs
Floss daily
Be a blue line girl
Drink all the necessary water and no soda
Get on a regular and healthy eating schedule

These are a just a few goals I've made. There are more long term ones that I didn't put up. I'm really excited for these goals and I think they will enrich my life. However, I've already run into a snag. My workout buddy just moved to Colorado and now I find the motivation to get up at ridiculous hours in the morning infinitely more difficult. So now I need to either A- find a new work out buddy, or B- love myself enough to make myself go. I'm thinking A will be easier, but B would be better.

I've heard that the best way to achieve a goal is to talk about it often. So that is why I am posting today. I'm letting the world know that I have plans for my life. I also plan on putting reminders all over the place to help me keep focused. I will track myself daily and record what I've done and what I need to work on. I have great hopes for the results. I do worry that I will start to falter after a couple of weeks, but I will pray and do my best.

So here I come world. Here I come goals and better living.

Too Hairy

Eyebrows... really? Why do they have to grow to ridiculous bushes if not kept under control? Why can't they just look nice all the time? I recently acquired bangs (and I love them). The only problems is, that since they cover my eyebrows I haven't tweezed in weeks. When I pulled my bangs up today to experiment with my makeup, I was shocked and appalled at what I saw. I had a forest above each eye!! It was grotesque. So of course I immediately set to work trimming and fixing the mess. Now my skin is red and puffy and my eyes keep watering. It's certainly been way to long since I last touched them up, and it shows. Waxing really is the way to go. But ultimately, I think I would love it most if they were just perfect all the time. Thus is life, however. And I suppose I'm looking forward to this constant adventure... or maybe not so much. On the bright side, they once again look normal and I can pull my bangs up more often if I need to without the fear of scaring the public.

The End

No, not of my blog, but of my Alaskan adventure. And it ended well. After the funerals, life happened pretty fast. I did many hikes, and spent a lot of time with friends and my roommate. She was engaged, then wasn't and now I have no idea how that is going to play out. The last week in July a friend came to visit Curt from Utah and it was great getting to know Evan (the friend) better. I also caught my first fish during this time :) A seven pound pink salmon.


It was pretty exciting times. The day Curt and Evan left to come back to Utah, I made a journey of my own.

I was a camp counselor for Girl's Camp in Juneau. Random right? Who goes to Sitka for the summer to be a Girl's Camp counselor in Juneau? Apparently I do. I met some incredible women and girls. I was technically a cabin mom, and my other mom was amazing. Her name is Penney and she is married to a Tlingit man, which means she was adopted into the culture. He was Raven making her Eagle. We had some really good conversations and if I ever go to Alaska again, I will do everything I can to meet up with her again.

During camp I was in charge of the waterfront activities with a woman named Donna. Again, I learned so much. I was blessed to be able to talk about big life lessons with her. Debbie Perkins was the camp director and I got to know her pretty well also. It seemed as though we'd always end up walking down the trail together so we got to know each other. Debbie is one of those people that you feel you've known your entire life, and perhaps before the veil. I really was lucky to have the opportunity to go to camp and meet these women.

At camp, all the girls were pretty awesome too. However, they were all confused about whether I was a leader or a girl. All week I was asked if I was 17. It was actually really funny because the girls never knew if they should take me seriously or not. I really do wish that I could spend more time with all the friends I made there. Including some of the girls.

After girls camp I only had a week and a half left in Sitka. So my friend Scott decided to come up for a visit. It was awesome having someone from home see what Sitka was all about. He really wanted to go fishing so we did. Well, he did. I held a jelly fish head.

Living in Sitka this summer was a chance of a life time. I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity and I learned more than I would have if I had stayed in Utah. I'm grateful that the chance came up and that Dad encouraged me to go. I probably won't go back to live there, but I would love to visit people again. I'd really love for my family to see it, so if anyone goes, let me know and I'll play tour guide :)