~My Life~

Back in Gilbert, Back to My Life

2010-08-09T21:37:00.002-07:00

I didn't know how much I missed my (boring) life until I get pulled away from it for 17 days! After being home in Thatcher taking care of my grandma and being around family for just over two weeks, I was ready to come home to Gilbert! I don't have much of a life these days but I sure love that I'm back where I belong. One last day with family was great though! After I got back, my sister's family, my brother's family and I all went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (my favorite by the way) and we had such a good time! It was really nice to get together with them. Afterward, my sister and her family came over to my apartment and taught me a new game. It's called Dice and is so fun! They were here until after 11:00 last night and I crashed! I was so happy to be in my own bed in my own apartment!! This week is full of little chores and appointments that makes it feel so great to be back! I still have a few things left to put up in my new apartment and meetings for school and doctor's appointments in addition to trying to have a social life. I'm excited for school to start next week and I can't wait to see what happens in life. But I do know one thing is for sure... I'm extremely glad to be home.

Growing in a world of NO change...

2010-08-03T14:48:00.002-07:00

This summer is finally almost over! I have been through so many ups and downs in the past few months. One thing that I've had on my mind all day is how much my world around me impacts my life. I have found myself sitting here hoping and praying for something to change, something to be different in the situations I'm faced with. But time and time again, it's the same situation even though it's a different time. And while I was hoping and praying for change, I never stopped to think that I was the one changing and growing through it all. So, to some up my summer... I spent it growing in a world of NO change. And I'm OK with that. Because from everything that I see and witness in my life, I can take in and look at things differently. I can handle things differently. And most importantly, I can become a different person than those who are setting 'examples' (good or bad) for me. I don't have to follow everyone else or anyone's life pattern. I'm here to make my own mark in life and that's what I plan on doing. My world may not change, but I will.

The Most Beautiful Temple...

2009-03-11T21:50:00.005-07:00

... to ever serve the people of the Rocky Mountains will be built in "THE" Gila Valley. That's right... a long awaited temple will soon be in my hometown of Central, AZ. It will be in the heart of the Gila Valley where Pioneers first began to settle. This temple has been prophesied from way back in the day and now, in my day, I get to witness it. Oh how those hard working pioneers must feel about us getting our temple. Not only is it coming but it will be right across the highway from my parents house and you will be able to see it from our backyard. My best friend Lisa's dad got the bid to do all of the concrete work for the temple. What a great blessing and an amazing experience to take part in the "foundation" of our temple. My family had the wonderful priveledge to sit in the freezing cold for over an hour to see the groundbreaking and listen to wonderful testimonies. My dad was able to help out with parking and my uncle and part of his family even came all the way from Wyoming for this specail occasion. How truly we are blessed to have such a wonderful temple be built in our backyard. I cant wait to see the finished project! Below is a "pre-picture" of what it will look like. Isn't it beautiful?

Super Bowl Sunday! Go Cardinals!

2009-02-05T18:29:00.002-07:00

In light of our very own hometown team making it to the Super Bowl for the first time in history, we decided to celebrate. Luckily I had a homework assignment reguarding the Super Bowl for Psychology so I was able to go home and get two birds, well three, with one stone. Not only did I get to watch the Super Bowl and get my homework done, I was able to spend time with my wonderful family. It never hits me how hard I miss them until I get to spend time with them. Especially my sister's kids. We had alot of fun watching the game. The food was good and the so was the game. The outcome was heartbreaking. We all know the Cardinals deserved to win. The ref's sucked and the Steelers are stupid poor sports. But, I still enjoyed being home and being around great people. My sister even learned a thing or two about football. At least I think she did... =) All in all it was great fun and I cant wait til we are all together again! They wont admit it but they miss me everyday too....

New Year... New Look

2009-01-04T12:57:00.004-07:00

The New Year always brings new things to life. We all make our 'goals' that we all know we will never accomplish. I too made goals for the year and I am determined to stick to it and reach them. Last year was a rough year for me. I went through alot from graduating EAC to moving to starting a new school and two new jobs. I rode in the front seat of the emotional rollercoaster. This year I have high hopes for a better life and new adventures. I guess you can say I have a new look on life. Not only did I change my views of life and of the expectations of this year, I changed my own look. I randomly went to Sally's the day after Christmas with Shanna and bought hair dye. I got really sick and was unable to dye it the next day like I wanted to and by the time New Year's Eve came around I was starting to change my mind about dying it. It was a dark red/brown color and I had never done something that extreme before. I have never dyed my hair one solid color. Just highlights. Well, after doing all this great thinking during my down time while being sick, I decided to just do it. So, at 9pm on New Year's Day, I got the dye out and went at it. At first I thought I looked like a Goth and I will admit, I cried. I hated it. I went to work the next day and got alot of compliments on it so I decided I would give it another try. Then yesterday on my way to Wal-Mart I decided to get it cut. I went to this little walk in place next to Sally's and chopped it all off. There's definately no turning back now. I got up this morning and got ready for church. After doing my hair and putting my new BedHead makeup on, I felt so much better. I'm starting to really like it and I sure dont care if others do or not. I went out on a limb and changed my look. Something that I normally would never do. I'm pretty proud of myself. Here's the pictures...

Not My Time...

2008-12-15T18:29:00.002-07:00

Some people that I told this story to didnt think anything of it but I like to think it was a miracle... I was on my way home last Friday night. Home to Thatcher that is. I had just gotten out of the mountains and was in Miami. I was driving in the outside lane and was directly even with another small car next to me. All of the sudden I see him trying to run me off the road. I swirved to my right to dodge him and notice I was going to hit a big pole. Without me thinking about it, my car swirved in the other direction, spun two times around and stopped facing on-coming traffic. Last time I noticed, there were rather a few of us cars traveling together and there were cars going the other direction. After dashing, well, spinning across 3 lanes, I managed to not hit a single one. Now, if you know me, you know how I drive. My music is ALWAYS on, my phone is ALWAYS in my lap, and I NEVER drive with my hands at 10 and 2. For some crazy reason, I turned my music off, my phone was in my purse, and my hands were at 10 and 2. I was in full control and most importantly ALERT when this happened. The other car didnt if hesitate to finish getting into my lane and speed off. I hurried and got back into my lane and was suddenly at that instant surrounded by all the same cars again. How did I NOT hit a single one? How did my car swirve the other way, missing the pole? I immediately began to freak out and called my mom. I was histerical. Nothing like this has ever happened to me and I really did think, no, I KNEW that I was going to wreck and get severely hurt. I should've. There was no logical way of getting around a wreck. But I did. My car was fine, I was fine, and everyone else on the road was fine. I pulled off the side of the road and calmed down. I took my time driving the rest of the way, still very much freaked out to drive. I got home and went and layed on my mom's bed and just cried and cried. She repeatedly told me that someone was watching over me. I told her that as I was on my way home from Globe, and was thinking about the whole scenerio, I realized that I needed turn my wheel the other way. She replied, "You didnt." Brings a whole new meaning to Carrie Underwood's hit song "Jesus Take The Wheel." I kept crying and my mom reassured me that Angels watch over us and that Heavenly Father protects us. If it isn't our time to go, we dont go. It sure enough was NOT my time... I cried the whole way from Globe to Thatcher crying my eyes out praying and thanking my Father in Heaven for saving my life that night. I should've wrecked. If anything else, it was a testimony strengthener for me and I consider myself very blessed to still be here.

My First Christmas Not Living At Home

2008-12-07T00:26:00.003-07:00

When growing up there comes a certain reaching point when its the first time you are away from home for the holidays. Unfortunately, this year is that year for me. I have always been one who starts Christmas back in October. Ask my family. At home I would always make my mom drag the Christmas decorations out as soon as possible. I loved the movies, the music, the lights. Everything. This year I have been having a hard time with being away for most of the "Holiday Season". I am able to go home for the actual holidays but I wont be there to help bake Christmas goodies and I didnt help with the tree or I wont get to watch my mom wrap. All of these things, as weird as it sounds, I love and miss very much! My favorite thing to do was to decorate and when we finished, and the house was clean, me and my mom sat with Christmas music playing and drank hot chocolate with all of the lights turned off and the Christmas lights on. She doesnt even have to question whether or not I will do it. As hard as it is being away, I had fun decorating my OWN place for Christmas. And I sure did sit with hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music while all the lights were off except my tree lights. It wasnt has meaningful alone as it is at home but the tradition still lives on. My mom got really mad at me when I told her I took the "Ugly Santa". This stupid Santa has been in our family since my oldest brother's first Christmas. It is the ugliest thing you will ever see in your life but it means alot to us kids. And I sure brought it home with me. At night when I'm really missing home and hate the fact that I'm up here, I lay on my couch and look at my tree and hug the "Ugly Santa". I absolutely love this time of year and I dont think I will ever grow out of it. I'm a kid at heart when it comes to Christmas. I cant wait!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-05T08:17:00.002-07:00

I dont have any pictures to show but I thought I would write about it anyway. I was so excited to be able to go home for Thanksgiving. At first I was going to go home on Wednesday and then back up here on Friday and then BACK DOWN on Friday night. I was going to have to work on Friday but to my surprise on Wednesday, just before I left work to go home, my boss pulled me aside and told me not to worry about coming in on Friday. To just stay and enjoy my weekend. I was sooo excited! I was able to go home from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon. Thanksgiving was great! My favorite part is Grandma's Chicken Noodles that go on the potatoes. We all stayed up that night to play games. It was alot of funny until everyone started getting tired and we all were pretty much blah. My mom, sister, and sister in law all got up at 3am and went to Wal-Mart the next day, yes... Black Friday. We had never done it before and Hope really wanted this Trampoline for her kids so we headed to Wal-Mart at 3:30am. After we survived we all went to breakfast. It was alot of fun with just the girls. I neve get to really do anything with them sinse I moved. And then on Saturday we went to our craft shows that we go to every year. This time, my dad came with us. It was a little on the odd side but still alot of fun. I'm really thankful that I have such a wonderful family and even more thankful for the time I get to spend with them. It's not very much these days so every minute means alot. I am excited to see them all again real soon!

SURPRISE! I'M HOME!

2008-11-11T22:37:00.002-07:00

The day after Halloween, at 7:30am... Me, Shanna, and Lyndee left Mesa and headed home for the weekend. The sneaky part, my family had no idea I was coming. I loved pulling in and walking into the backyard and seeing the look on my Dad's face! Haha His reaction was the only one I did like! Everyone else, and I mean EVERYONE else, said, and I quote, "What are you doing here?" It wasn't exactly a joyful expression of words either. I was a little offended. But, I knew they all loved seeing me... =) However, I had stayed up the entire night before cleaning my apartment so when I got there, I crashed. I slept so much that I hardly got to see anyone. But it sure felt good to be home. I loved seeing my family. And being woke up by my nieces never gets old, no matter how many times it happens, I still love it! Especially since I dont get to see them very much. I got to go to lunch with my Mom at El Charo and she even made me some Enchilada sauce to take home. Which by the way, a week later, is gone... It was a short 30 hours I spent at home before I was headed back to Mesa. I left just before sunset and was able to capture a few beautiful pictures of what everyone SHOULD see when the sun goes down. However, in the city you dont get to see it this way. I miss home very much and I certainly didnt want to leave. But I know I'm up here for a reason and it wont be much longer until I can go back home and stay there. Hopefully. Here are the pictures....

Halloween Madness

2008-11-11T22:20:00.002-07:00

The night before Halloween was crazy! I went to Shanna's house to decorate cookies. Little did we know that we would be up all night with a sugar high. We had our fun decorating cookies and I had the briliant idea to go "Pumpkin Attack" our friend's door. So, we finished our cookies and when Mary got home we made a bunch of pumpkins and wrote messages on them. We got to their apartment at midnight that night. To make sure we didnt make too much noise while we were by their door, we put all the tape on the pumpkins ahead of time and well... uh, taped them to Shanna. Haha We had alot of fun doing it and it sure made their friday (Halloween) alot better when they woke up to find their door covered with little pumpkins covered with messages. We call ourselves the Halloween Fairies. Unfortunately, I didnt feel up to going out on Halloween. But I sure did have a ton of fun the night before!

Poem For School

2008-10-22T00:16:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I'm taking a literature course at MCC. Right now we are doing our poetry section and one of our assignments was to actually write a poem. I'm so not good with words of any kind, especially when trying to put them in a poem! But I knew right away what I wanted to write about. My sister Heather. It is due tomorrow, Wednesday the 22nd and I just barely wrote it. It took about 3 hours to write and perfect it. I'm pretty proud of it I'm not going to lie. Please tell me what you think! And Hope... YOU HAVE TO READ IT!

For Heather
By: Halie Berryhil

The womb is where it started to bind
The painful, lifelong storm
Cancer is what they soon would find
Shortly after you were born.

Eight months later, how you grew
Getting bigger by the day
Not knowing the tumor grew too
Doctors knew not what to say.

Three years to live is what they said
After surgery number one.
Two weeks later it’s found in the head
They prayed it would soon be done.

Some would say, “Daddy’s Lil’ Champ”
And Mom would start to cry.
Dad replied with his eyes real damp,
“It’s my Princess you passed by.”

You continued to grow past the age of three
Blind to that in store.
You went on with life and waited to see
What’s behind the next door?

Things fell apart, your heart went bad
But up that list you moved
Trying to be happy while others were sad
Hoping the pain would soon be soothed.

Then the day came when you got the call
Your heart was on it’s way.
Only at age 9 you stood real tall
For you were a Hero that day.

Surgery went good, but recovery long
Couldn’t do what the others did.
Didn’t really know where you belong
Just wanted to be a kid.

Few years later, still going strong
Through High School, Boys and Prom
Wondering if life would be very long
Would you ever be a mom?

Time went on, your heart began to fail
Another transplant was in order
It was then that your storm started to hail
And you realized life’s getting shorter.

Two years you suffered and started to fade
Six months is what they gave you
We hoped goodbye would be delayed
And we would go away too.

The day would come faster than we hope
That you would shut your eyes
How awful it would be just trying to cope
And getting through the goodbyes.

A Daughter, Sister, Friend and Hero
The date will always be
2-22-02 that your pain dropped to zero
But the pain is with US you see.

Twenty-one years was too young to die
Our tears could fill the Sea.
The hardest thing to say is, “Bye”
But I know you’re watching me.

Dedicated to:
Heather Sharee Berryhill
6-12-1980 to 2-22-02

I love you and miss you.

Skateland!

2008-10-14T21:28:00.002-07:00

Ok, so me and Shanna love having fun... Random fun. But we usually always end up doing something that we ALWAYS do... While talking about doing something way different, we came up with Skateland! We went to check prices and found out that on that particular night, Christians got in for FREE!! SCORE! I'm glad LDS is also Christian! We had so much fun, even falling was a ton of fun. The last time I fell, I took Lyndee out with me and some old guy! LOL It sure made everyone smile though! I fell so hard! I landed on my head and I could've sworn I broke my arm! But luckily, I just bruised it pretty bad and tore some skin off... I cant wait to go again!

Snowflake!

2008-10-14T21:24:00.002-07:00

While my friend Melissa was staying with me for awhile we got the crazy idea to drive so Snowflake. I wanted to see the guy I was dating and she wanted to go see her sisters. It was around 6pm when we left and got there around 9:30. It was the funnest most random thing I had done in a long time. I believe we had more fun in the car than the time we actually spent in Snowflake! But it was alot of fun and I wouldn't have traded it for anything!

School

2008-10-13T22:36:00.002-07:00

I started school at MCC this Fall. Let's just say that I miss EAC. MCC is much bigger and the people aren't nearly as nice. I guess I just felt more comfortable at home. I'm getting used to things still and its hard but I know that I will do great!

My Job!

2008-10-13T22:27:00.002-07:00

After two very long months of filling out applications, I finally got a job! I went to Arizona Mills Mall and just walked around and gathered apps. We passed by Skechers and I was so excited about shoes I couldn't not walk in. I walked in to look at the shoes and got an application. When I got home and started filling out all the apps, I realized that the only place I would want to work out of all of them was Skechers. I had been wearing Skechers since I was little and would love to work there. I was so excited when I received a call from the store manager! I went for my interview and he hired me on the spot. I was thrilled! I love shoes and I love selling them. And I might add, I'm pretty good at it too! I love working there even though sometimes its tough, being the only LDS member and all. But its great and I was so excited to get the job!

Friends are Fun!

2008-10-13T22:14:00.001-07:00

After my first week of being up here my best friend Shanna came up to see me. We had sooo much fun! It didn't matter if we stayed inside and just laughed or went out dancing or went swimming. We had a blast! It was so sad to not have her up here all summer!

Moving to Mesa

2008-10-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

I moved up to Mesa in May 2008. It was really tough the first few months. Just being in a new place where I didn't know anybody. Being away from Home and it was extremely hard to find a job! But, all in all, I'm glad I moved. I've really changed alot in my life and am opening myself up more and more!