A Little Perspective...

For the past few years, instead of making New Year's resolutions, my friends and I have selected a word that would be our theme for the coming year.  For 2012, I had selected the word "perspective".  

For the most part throughout my life I try to do the right thing...the right thing according to societial rules, personal integrity, and of course my belief in God and trying to follow His plan for me.  I had noticed that as I would be trucking along the path of my life thinking everything was going well and I was doing my best, eventually I'd run into a road block.  Sometimes a BIG roadblock.  In the past I would find myself either beating my head against the roadblock or else sitting down in frustration and confusion wondering "why" the roadblock was there.  Wasn't I doing what I was suppose to be doing? What had I done wrong?  Why was God punishing me when I was trying to follow His commandments and do what He wanted me to do.  Eventually I'd pick myself back up and look around only to be pleasantly surprised to notice that it wasn't acutally a roadblock in my path at all, but merely something put in my way to change my course either a little bit or a lot.    The problem was that I would again start trucking down the path again...and when again I'd hit another roadblock, I'd again sit and wonder "why?"  Hadn't I just changed my path, wasn't I doing what God wanted me to do now?  It was as if I had forgotten (again) that they usually are not a roadblocks or a "punishments' because we have failed in some way, but often just a technique to get us to turn our head and look at a better place to continue our journey.

Over the past year, as I have been trucking down the path of my life and have hit those roadblocks, I have been much quicker to look around and see the other, usually much better, opportunities and blessings that God has waiting for me. No longer do I sit at the side of the road frustrated, but I immediately look at the new path and start running towards it. 

As I look back on my life, I can now recognize that some of my biggest blessings have started out as some of the biggest crises in my own mind.  I can see that the person I have become today has indeed been forged through some refining fires of trials and heartache.   What a blessing this PERSPECTIVE has been in my life.  It has brought me happiness, peace and contentment where before I had uncertainty, sadness and worry. 

Some people zig...but I ZAGG!!

Hey!

So, I wanted to send an update about things going on with me.

A few months ago, a friend of mine, Ian Joy, approached me about starting a business with him. For the past 15 years Ian has been playing professional soccer. About 3 years ago I met him when I was working at Wells Fargo and he became a client of mine. Soon that professional relationship turned into a good friendship. When Ian decided to retire from soccer this year, he came to me with a business idea. We, along with his girlfriend Nichole Newbold, decided to open a franchise for a company called Zagg. Zagg is actually an acronym that stands for "Zealous About Great Gadgets" and they make and sell coverings for gadgets like cell phones, tablets, computers, e-readers, etc... Their corporate headquarters are here in Salt Lake City and as a company they are seeing tremendous growth and success.

After doing some due dilligence we decided to open our store at the St Louis Galleria Mall in St Louis, Missouri. We had our grand opening on May 13th, and now just a month later we are doing fantastic!! We have already signed a contract to open a second store in a nearby mall on September 1st and plan on opening at least 2 more in the coming months in the surrounding area.

I am keeping my career as a Financial Advisor and am in charge of running the books, doing payroll and inventory. Ian and Nichole moved to St Louis to run the day to day operations for the stores. I never imagined myself as a retail store owner, but I'm sure liking what I see so far. I am really excited to see where this takes us! Check out our website and let me know what you think! www.zaggcart.com/win If you decide you'd like to buy something, type in the code "CARTS10" when you check out to get 10% off of your order!

Winter Wonderland

I recently had a friend, Kenyon, come for a visit from out of town. He hasn't had much experience with snow and was completely excited to see what Winter Adventures awaited him here. The "big event" that I had planned was a snowmobile trip. We went with several of my friends...in fact there were 9 of us in all each with our own "sleds" as the experts call them. We started out at the Montage Resort at the top of Deer Valley, then we rode across the mountains into Midway and Heber where we stopped for lunch, then headed back. It was one of the most fun things I've done in quite a long time. Not that I'm keeping score or anything...but I was the only one in the group who didn't get stuck all day long! I don't know if that made me good or just more cautious than the rest of the riders!

The next morning we drove down to Zion's National Park. I've been to this beautiful park several times, but never during the winter and it was just gorgeous...although they happened to be having one of the biggest snowstorms in recent history. Most of the hikes that I am familiar with were too wet and muddy to go on, however we did the paved trail at the Temple of Sinawava. It was covered in about 3 inches of wet slush, and it was continuing to rain/snow, so by the time we returned to the car we were completely soaked though! We saw a few other hikers on the trail and at the end everyone left their mark by building a miniature snowman...we had a to be a little different, so we made a tribal mask smoking a pipe instead...yes...we're very creative. Haha!

Originally we had planned to go to Bryce Canyon the next day, but after looking at the weather and seeing that Bryce was suppose to be 28 degrees and snowing, we couldn't stand the thought of being soaked and cold for yet another day, so we decided to head back up to Salt Lake. Driving conditions were pretty treacherous...and after making it 60 miles in 2 hours we decided to stop and get a room in the thriving metropolis of Beaver. You know...when you come to spend the weekend with me, I don't spare any expense and only take you to the most luxurious destinations that Utah has to offer :)

The next morning we made it back to Salt Lake and were excited to see sunshine and blue skies. We decided to head to Park City and do some snowshoeing. It was really the perfect day for it!

It was really fun to have Kenyon here and to show off the beautiful state of Utah. I have had a wonderful winter and have really had a lot of fun getting out and enjoying the snow instead of my usual hybernation, wishing away the months until summer....but just so you know...secretly I can't wait until it's 90 degrees again!!

I'm back!

Hey everyone!

I know it's been ages since my last post...and I'm not going to make any excuses about why I've been away. Let's just say that I've been very busy and that things are going great!

With the start of the new year, I've decided to do something that I've never done before; I'm embracing winter and the Utah snow. I was born and raised in the beautiful state of Utah, and for as long as I can remember I have dreamed about moving to somewhere warm and tropical. I've actually done that a few times, but have always come back to the Beehive State. Now that I am happily resigned to living here I've decided that I need some fun winter hobbies to make the cold half of the year more enjoyable...instead of just hibernating and wishing for 90 degrees. Last year I took up snowshoeing and had a really fun time doing that.

This year I am taking ski lessons. My first lesson was yesterday and I had an absolute blast! I talked a friend into going with me and we signed up for the Alta's Adult Learn to Ski Program. I had such a great time and the best part is that I didn't fall down even once! We spent the day near the tow ropes and bunny hills (with all the children..heehee!) but I really feel like I learned a lot and can't wait to get out there again. We have four lessons total and feel confident that I will be a pro by the end of the season.

The best part is that I looked really adorable in my snow gear! Haha! This is especially important because I learned that there are a lot of out of hot male out of townies who travel in groups...my friend and I got chatted up a few times yesterday. All of them seemed very impressed that we were out for our first time and were anxious to give us tips and show us how it's done...I might have a new career as a ski bunny!

Did you think I had died?

Hello all!

You might have thought that I had died or something, and I could give all sorts of excuses about how busy I've been, but the truth of the matter is that I thought about writing many, many times, but didn't think I had anything to say.

But for those of you who know me, I ALWAYS have something to say! Haha!

I am getting ready to start a new job in a week or so and as part of the starting process, my manager had me write up a business plan. A business plan that includes my goals and objectives as well as activities that I will do to accomplish them. I laid out both my short-term and long-term goals and also detailed the reason "why" I want to accomplish them...and the "why" is actually the most important part of the business plan.

As with so many things in life, my professional self is intimately interwoven with my personal life. Writing up this business plan forced me to reflect on where I am in my life, where I am headed right now and IF that is indeed where I want to end up.

Doing this excercise helped me to concisely explain what I want in my life and I thought I would share them with you. Basically it comes down to four simple things. I realized that I want health, wealth, happiness and love. Just like with so many things in life, each of these simple words may mean something different to me than they might mean to someone else, so over the next few posts, I will explain what they mean to me.

Halloween

Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy the anticipation of creating a costume and then dressing up and being in character...I really should have gone in to theather or something like that.

In years past, I almost always have thrown my own Halloween parties. However, this year I left the party planning to others. I went to three different parties and of course, for each of them had to wear a different costume.

Friday night I dressed up as Princess Leia. This costume was inspired by a trip to Disneyland with my family a couple of years ago when I walked into the Star Tours gift shop and came across a Princess Leia headband complete with the huge cinnamon bun hair pieces. I knew that I could build a costume around this...and I had a total blast doing just that. I went to a thrift store down the street from my house and was totally amazed to find the exact dress and belt that I wanted. The dress happens to be an old LDS temple dress from the 80's or so, and the belt...well...I have no idea who besides a Jedi Princess would have ever worn this belt. It is made of metal and looks has a shield buckle on it. It was perfect!

Saturday night I was invited to a Zombie party thrown by a friend of mine who is famous for his parties...and it was not disappointing in the slightest. I didn't have time to get too creative with my costume for this one...but really almost anything goes as a zombie. So, I just put on my ugliest shirt (or prettiest for those of you who like sequence) put on a little white and green make up and ratted my hair as high as it would go. This party was so much fun! We played some really creative games, had dinner served and were even entertained when a few fellow zombies spontaneously performed Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. It was awesome!

After the zombie party, I went home and changed to go to another party. For this one, I chose to go as Wonder Woman...who happens to be my real alter ego. We went to a party that ended up being closed down by the police about an hour after we arrived. I know...you are probably thinking..."Melissa, aren't you a little OLD to be going to parties where the cops show up?" And the answer to that is "YES!" But...this is my life!

All in all, it was a very fun Halloween weekend and I can't wait to start thinking about what I will be next year!

Life Lessons

You know, everyday I try to be a good person. I know that I am no where near perfect and that I have many things to work on and many things that I want to change about myself and my life. I try to be kind to others, I go to church regularly, I read the scriptures, I say my prayers, I pay my tithing, and I try to serve others whenever I can. I do all of these things becaues it feels good to do them, but also because there is a part of me (maybe a BIG part of me) that wants to be blessed for my good behavior. So every night as I am kneeling before going to bed, as I say my prayers, I thank the Lord for all that He has given me and then I proceed to ask for those things which I would like to be blessed with.

I have to admit that sometimes I get frustrated because it seems like there are some things that I have been asking for for a very long time. There is a part of me that thinks that the reason that I haven't been blessed with those things that I want so very much is because I am not righteous enough. Or that I haven't been dilligent enough about reading the scriptures. Or that I said a mean thing about someone or did something bad so now I don't deserve those blessings. Or...the worst thing...that God just doesn't love me enough to bless me with those things that I want.

The Lord has said, "If you love Me keep My commandments." However, I wonder if what I am really saying to Him is "If You love me keep my commandments." Meaning that I think He only loves me if He grants me every wish of my heart....if He keeps my commandments to Him. And therefore if I don't get the blessings I want that He must not love me. How silly is that?

What it comes down to is this...I know that God lives and that He truly is in charge and knows everything. Deep down I know that He loves me, even if sometimes I have a hard time feeling that love because I have hardened my heart against it. I know that He wants good things for me. What I need to remind myself of is that because He loves me He has a plan for me and He knows the right time for every element of that plan to come to pass. He also wants me to have experiences that will make me a better person and that will teach me what I need to know to progress. Gosh...I hate learning these kinds of lessons!