Life Saver

last night was pretty miserable as far as sleeping was concerned.

or was it?

Since there was no possible way I was going to be able to sleep with the heartburn, the kicking, the bad dream lingering on my mind and the humid heat of my apartment I spent the whole night on a blog. A life saving, life changing, life inspiring - blog.

Here's the story:

My very first semester at BYU-Idaho I had, I think, 6 or 7 roommates. Yes. That is a lot of roommates to have at any time but I think especially it's a lot of roommates to have when you've never had a roommate (other than a big sister) before.

One of my roommates was this girl. Stephanie.

Her hair was much longer then. I remember that she was very nice. She was silly. Quirky. She was from Oregon and she had a strong testimony. Unfortunately I was trapped in a world of stress, of pain, of extreme emotion and turmoil. I didn't really try to get to know any of my roommates, I was just trying to survive each day. Too bad. I should have gotten to know Stephanie. I think we could have been great friends. She's cool.

I think we were only roommates for a semester...maybe another short summer term after that. It wasn't too much longer that I left school permanently to prepare financially to serve a mission.

That was 5 or 6 years ago.

I can't remember when it was, maybe a year or two ago, I was in the Temple and heard someone softly call my name. I turned around and guess who was working in the Washington DC temple? Stephanie. We embraced quickly and chatted for just a quick minute since I had to get back to Freddy and that was it. She looked exactly the same. Hadn't aged a bit. A short time later I found her on facebook with the intention of trying to get together with her during another temple trip but it never happened.

I did happen to find her blog though. Thank goodness for that. What a life saver.

Last night while trying to take my mind off of everything {bad dream, heartburn, moving to Utah, money, no insurance, hurricane Irene...etc} so I could sleep I went to her blog and started reading from the beginning. It was very entertaining. Comforting. Inspiring. Revitalizing. Provoking {in a good way}. Rejuvenating. Simplifying. It was just plain wonderful. It got me excited about life again. The little things and the big things. Mostly, I've just been really worried about life...not excited about it. But the way Stephanie captures the beauty in every single day inspired me and I felt like I wanted to LIVE again.

Reading her blog made me want to pick up a good book again,
go for a long walk,
bake a scone,
discover an adventure right outside my front door,
collect colored leaves,
take more pictures of myself and my love,
plan a secret date for my man,
eat more cupcakes and vegetables,
do my hair,
throw a party,
write a poem,
paint a picture,
sing a song,
snuggle,
buy a hat,
clean my house,
sew,
do more yoga,
hem my curtains,
saute something,
eat tofu again,
kiss,
hug,
and read my scriptures more.

Life saver? Yes. Thank you Stephanie.

Things I love about her blog (and I think you will love too):
She posts lots of pictures of FOOD, but mostly....cupcakes.
Love letters to her baby and to her man.
She has bad days.
Her photography.
She's all about changing too!

There is much much more to love and discover for yourself in her blog. Check it out if you need a pick me up. If you're feeling down, just go spend some time with Steph. You'll feel better. Promise.