30 days to 30

So...here is my plan.

I hope it pans out.

I am getting ready to turn...*cough* 30!

And I think it will be fun and interesting to do something new everyday.

30 days to 30.

I will start the 30th and end on the day of my birth, the 28th.

I have some ideas but I would love to get some ideas from you as well.

I will be updating weekly of the things I did for each day.

I plan on not only making 2011 a year to remember but also the beginning of a new decade for Yours Truly. Holla!!

Here is a picture from my last birthday.

Happy times!

Gratitude Rocks!!!

- The true meaning of Christmas, cheese, a happy text, new beginnings, Boyd K Packer, leaves falling in front of me

I smile has finally emerged

I am so happy to say that I finally

see light at the end of the tunnel.

Gratitude Rocks!!

- patience, friends who are always there to listen, a bathroom to say a quick prayer in, endurance, Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs (he has been a terrific distraction)

Gratitude Rocks!!

Here is a list of the things that, at this time in my life, I am grateful for.

- My Savior Jesus Christ. Let face it, without him, our lives would be lonely. He wants us to be happy. And through our darkest moments he is there to comfort us. Thank you!

- My eternal family. I have without a doubt the ultimate best family. They are always there for me when I need them the most. I can always count on them to make me feel better. Plus, I love that we tease each other, it makes me stronger. Thank you!

- Sincere hugs. There is nothing better in this world then a hug that had's the sincerity behind it. And trust me I can feel the difference. Thank you!

- My job. Working with the best people in the world has been the best distraction a girl could ask for. Thank you!

- A hot shower. I know weird, right? But it's true. I was thinking that this morning when my room was super cold and I needed to get warm. Thank you!

- Sister Elaine L. Jack. I am currently reading her book 'Eye to Eye, Heart to Heart' and it truly is amazing. It is exactly what I need right now and I feel that the book is written directly for me. Thank you!

- A priesthood blessing. I love the power that comes when a priesthood holder comes to my house, places his hands on my head and gives me a blessing of comfort. I cry through the whole thing and am eternally grateful for every word that is spoken. Thank you!

- A box of tissues. Those babies have come in handy. Thank you!

- My space heater at work. My office has disconnected the heat in our building. My desk is granite. Coldstone could seriously open shop here on my desk in the winter and serve ice cream, it is that cold. Thank you!

- Prayer. I heart the fact that anytime, anywhere, I can pray to my Heavenly Father and ask for guidance, love, comfort or express my gratitude. It's such a great blessing in my life having that communication. Thank you!

I heart Thanksgiving! Thank you to everyone and everything in my life. I love you!!!

My Boys

These are "My Boys"

They are roommates.

They are each different.

They are smart.

They are easy-going.

They are genuine.

They make me laugh.

They are simply AMAZING!

Chase, Dave, Yours Truly, Tyson

Chase is one smart cookie. This guy works with computers and knows all about them and their special little tricks. I saw his desktop and it is covered with icons. A little overwhelming for me but he understands it all. He has a photographic memory and can pretty much remember every scripture and talk given in church. He is a talker and can talk and "argue" with you about anything. This guy kissed a random girl at New Year's! (I learned that last night) He teaches me something new each time I see him. He makes me smile.

Dave is my best friend. This guy has never met a stranger. He makes everyone he meets feel comfortable. He is hard working in every aspect of life. He is currently in PT (physical therapy) school and studies ALL the time. Sucks for me but I appreciate his dedication. He has confessed many times though that he just stops studying and reads movie updates, surf the web, watch 'Friends', etc. He would rather be playing with friends and enjoying the good times. He and I are similar in so many ways but are different in so many ways, so being with him is always fun and interesting. I swear this guy wants to be a "gangster." We argue like brother and sister and we do the nuh-uh and yeah-hah all the time. It's quite comical. He makes me smile.

Tyson is the kindest person I have ever met. This guy will give the shirt off his back if needs be. I have never heard one judgement come out of him about anyone since I have known him. He loves everyone and will do anything for you. If you are having a bad day he is the guy you want to be around. He will be that genuine listening ear and will give you the advice that you need but didn't think that you needed. He is so faithful in the gospel. He loves his family so much and is always showing me pictures. He plays the piano and writes his own music. Super talented. He makes me smile.

This picture shows all of our personalities.

Chase - "I don't really care what you think of me"

Dave - "That's right, I'm bad"

Yours Truly - "I'm sweet and sassy."

Tyson - "I'm here, now what?"

I will be sad & happy when these fine gentlemen find their eternal companions.

The girls that snag them will be the 3 luckiest girls.

*disclaimer - I know some of you may want to comment on me and these guys well go ahead. They do not read this as they don't know that I have a blog.

Gratitude Rocks!!!

-CES Firesides, surprise visits, good conversations, being dressed in all white, my hair, being told how much you mean to one person.

Smiling A Lot Lately :)

Life is FAN-TAB-U-LOUS!!

I just wanted to share that.

Yours Truly, Brian, Dave & Courtney

Celebrating at Benihana's for Dave's birthday

Little plug; Benihana's gives you $30 gift card to use during your birthday month!

Holla! I can't wait for January, so sign up.

Speaking of Dave's birthday,

I wanted to give my best friend the best birthday gift.

He and I share a love for the TV show "Friends"

We quote it to each other ALL the time.

So I made a collage of the best quotes,

took a picture of the six cast members

and my dear friend Holly photoshopped our heads into the picture.

I loved it!

He loved it!

It was pure awesomeness!!

Remember me sharing my little joy of creepy crawling things?

We had this cute little guest at work.

I named him "Cheeto" for the time being.

I couldn't get enough of him.

Gratitude Rocks!!!

-Boys making me 2 meals in one day, singing, teaching people how to play a simple card game that they just couldn't grasp (so funny btw), chatting with madre about our weekends.

As Frank Sinatra would sing

"Start spreading the news"

I'm not leaving today however I am..

HAPPY!

That's right, I am so happy right now with how everything is, it's great!

It took me a long time to get to this point and I am thrilled to be in this place.

Just thought you would guys would like to know.

Feel free to share the news, Frank Sinatra style.

Gratitude Rocks! - Faith in Heavenly Father, a good laugh, supportive friends and family. Thank you to all!!!

I am done...

with this HEAT!!!

It is bloody October! It should be at least in the 90s but NO. I still have to endure the triple digits. I love the summers here but I can always tell when I am sick of it. I want to open my windows at night. I want to turn off my A/C and save some money. I want to lay in my backyard and enjoy the cooler weather. Hopefully soon. Real soon before I go more insane. In the hopes of cooler weather here is a weekend I had this summer to escape the heat. I went to Eagar, AZ. A town that I thought I would never love, but at that moment I loved every minute of it. My friend Lindsay has a friend that lives there and he invited her to come play and she invited me and of course I jumped at the opportunity. A chance to wear a sweater, hell ya! Here are pictures from that weekend in July.

We went to the water tower and had to get there by climbing a fence.

I don't do that since the last time I climbed a fence I sliced my hand.

Luckily there was a huge gap between the ground and the fence.

Lindz and I That's right shooting was part of the plan. I hate guns with a passion but every time I shoot one I always hit the target. Impressive? 'Ello Beautiful Country! Crawdads that the family caught. I love holding creeping and crawling things. It's a little twisted joy that I get. Andy, Yours Truly, Lindz

Scary huh?

I think so. But first shot and I slaughtered that glass bottle. Boo Ya!

The Hat!

The only hat that I have ever found that looks somewhat decent on me.

Granted, my hair has to look a certain way, but I love it!

I miss that cool weekend. I want to experience that nice weather on my face here at home. Please come our way soon. Thank you oh so much Weatherman.

Gratitude Rocks!!

-Discovering a French Toast that I actually enjoy eating.

- Finished birthday projects

- Rubbing Nicole's belly

- Conference weekend

- My "a-ha" moment

Consequences for having fun

Saturday I went to Sedona's Slide Rock Park to have some fun with friends.

If anyone has ever been there I am sorry to say that it was just OK.

Super crowded and not what I was expecting.

Oh well, it didn't matter,

I was with one of my favorite people.

Things were going great, sliding down the slides of mossy rock.

Next on the list was cliff jumping.

Not a big deal.

I heart jumping from high heights.

The only thing that was preventing me from taking that plunge

was the hike back up. I had decided that I was too lazy to do that little detail.

But Dave was encouraging me to do it from below.

I made the choice to do it. Especially since I already threw my shoes down to him.

I needed to retrieve those suckers.

I jumped from 33 feet.

FYI: I have jumped higher than that.

Come up out of the water and I can't see a thing.

I lost one contact while the other is lost in my eye.

I screamed "Damn It!"

I am blind!

Luckily we left 20 min after that happened.

Get back to Glendale and we decide to go to dinner.

Fabulous!

I am gross from the water,

I am disabled.

Where is my seeing eyed dog?!

Dave comes up with the brilliant idea to put in my one contact and wear an eye patch.

Like a pirate?

AYE!

I went to dinner looking like a Pirate.

It was pretty funny.

Luckily I don't get embarrassed easily and everyone was good sports.

The picture was taken with my camera so it isn't the best quality of that great mess.

I had to drive home this way too.

Don't worry,

I didn't hit anyone and my hands were at ten and two the entire time.

It was fun, but I hope to never have that happen again.

Yours Truly home safe that night.

Gratitude Rocks!!

- Sight!, compassion, popcorn, newborns, paper shredder, a smile to brighten my day

Not much...

is going on. Already keeping up this thing is hard when you have absolutely nothing happening. I came home from institute last night, it was almost 10 o'clock. Do you think I went to bed since there was nothing to do and no one to hang out with? Nope. I dished myself a nice helping of cookies n' cream ice cream, went through my DVR to see what will keep me entertained. Ah, Project Runway, NICE! And I found myself in complete contentment. Don't get me wrong, I heart people! I get my energy and happiness by being around anyone that is willing to be around me. But every once in awhile, putting my hair up in a disgusting pony tail, wearing pj's that have paint stains on them, and indulging in something that I probably shouldn't put down my gullet that late at night is pure joy.

Friday is here and that will not happen tonight. I plan on having someone to keep me company. Someone that is willing to put up with my crazy ways of nonsense. Someone that loves me to the eternities. My Madre! She is oh so lucky. I plan on beating her playing Skip-bo tonight. Bring it!!

I was going through my pictures and found this one of yours truly with her most favorite person that roams this planet with her. Old photo, taken the weekend that Nicole started dating Brady. Happy times, love you Buckley!

Gratitude Rocks!! -Prayers, lessons learned, Chino Banditos!, Sunday movie night, families

2 Adult Kids in Cali

About a month ago, I had a dear friend bite the dust.

She got married.

I am super happy for her.

She had a reception in California and I thought why not.

I have nothing else to do.

Plus it gets me to The Happiest Place On Earth.

So I asked my friend Dave to drive with me.

He would be the perfect companion for the drive as well as Disneyland.

Happy Times!!!

Time for the reception;

Great Food.

Dancing.

Cute little girls snapping pictures with my camera.

Then....

Broken camera.

The cute little girls dropped my camera.

A little ticked but oh well, it's done.

Here are a couple of the snap shots taken.

Payton looking sad. She wanted to take some pics. Kylie, the little culprit that broke the camera. Love her!

Ruston and Doug Lansan Dave Yours Truly Now onto Disneyland. Dave and I only attended said park. We did all but 7 rides. We did all the shows; Parade, Firework Show, Fantasmic. The weather was perfect, never did it reach above 80! Since my camera was broken, Dave was a trooper and snapped photos and one lovely video. He just cracks me up. I had the time of my life. The tram on the way to Happiness! Jungle Cruise Being attacked by fake men. Captain EO had returned! It wouldn't be a true Dave photo without a pose.

The classic pose in front of the castle.

Beginning of parade.

They stopped in front of us for about 10 minutes

and sang, danced and even a conga line.

We were having the time of our lives

singing and dancing on the bench.

We were seriously 2 kids.

We may have looked like "special people."

Neither one of us had ridden Dumbo in a long time

so why not.

So at the beginning of the day,

Dave had a challenge that whoever saw someone they knew

the other person had to buy the winner a churro.

Now Dave is an army brat.

He has lived in a lot of places,

hails from Utah.

Surely he would win.

Nope.

I Win!

I see Mr. Wilson, my teacher from JR high.

"Hello, free churro. You are one of the best parts about this place."

On the tram coming back to the car.

Again, not a photo without Dave posing.

We were so tired.

Feet and shins are in pain. However, we had so much fun!

Nice little getaway.

Here is the video that Dave took while riding Autopia.

He makes me smile.

Gratitude Rocks!!

-letters, books, a hat that finally looks good on me, bruises that remind you how much fun you had.

New Source of Entertainment

Anyone that truly knows me, knows that I hate to read. I get really bored with it and it takes a lot to have a book grab me and suck me into its world. When asked what my favorite book is I actually do have an answer for them.

It is "The Giver."

I was flying to Salt Lake City one summer and had asked Nicole to recommend a book for me to read. She lent me that one and it was read in 2 days! Now anyone who has either read or seen that book, probably did or could read it in a day. But 2 days, that is a feat for me and I must say I am proud of myself.

Well, the reason for this post, while I was in the car driving to Cali (post about that later when I get pics from Dave) Dave and I were talking about what it would be like to live in a day when there was a horse and buggy to get you places,

where you had to grow your food,

hard labor was always a must sometime during your day,

entertainment was not relied on video games and television.

Well that got me thinking about my source of entertainment.

I love TV and movies.

I get so drawn into characters on the tube and just fall in love.

I even watch TV and movies at work.

Don't roll your eyes! I do work people, it's on the side of my screen, geez.

Thinking and knowing that I rely a lot of entertaining me is by the tube kind of makes me sad.

So....

I am turning off "the box" and reading for a week.

I want to fall in love with different characters.

I will have 3 books going.

CRAZY!! especially for a girl who hates the novel.

I will have one at work,

one at home

and one that I will read just before bed.

I am going to go in with a positive attitude and hope that by the end of the week, I will be a lover of books. Mom will so proud.

Gratitude Rocks!!

-Popsicles, hugs, Disneyland, flowers, a slow dance, blessings

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!

I am hoping that Nicole read that title in the voice that I typed it in.

Well, here I am. Sarah Buckley in my true form. Deciding to try out my own blog and seeing where it takes me and where I take it. You would think that since I am starting this, that there must be something happening that is worth sharing. Like dating someone special, going to exotic places, getting a new a throw pillow, but alas no, it's just me. But hey, when I get that new throw pillow I will for sure let all of you know.

I am starting a blog for many reasons.

1) I got rid of Facebook. It was time. I got so addicted to it that I gave myself an intervention. No letters were written but needless to say I gave myself a good talking to. I am very convincing to myself. Thanks self. 2) My family has no ways of keeping tabs on me. No Facebook, remember. I know I lead an elaborating life (haha!!) so keeping this updated with various thoughts and happenings might be good for them. 3) Friends have encouraged me to write about things that might interest other people. Like going out to restaurants, watching movies, etc. Might be fun, as long as the budget, as well as my waist line, hold out. I would like to say that I plan on posting everyday, I mean I did laugh at elaborating, so my goal is once a week. If something comes up, I will for sure blog about it. So let's see, hopefully this will entertain you.

Gratitude Rocks!

Help from Holls Balls, water, sunshine, discounts, Madre and all her awesomeness,

becoming an Aunt!