Cali cont.

Here is a slide show of a few pics that I took from my cousin Sausha's wedding in Cali. It was so beautiful, the ceremony, the decorations, the atmosphere and the food was to die for!!! I had never been to a wedding like this one, it was such a fun experience and it got us all pretty emotional. It was fun and classy all in one and I loved it! They had In N Out Burger come to cater in a moving van that was cool and she had the cutest red headed ring bearer ever!
Congrats to the newlyweds :)

Cali 2010

In October we had the chance to go to California for my cousin Sausha's wedding and to visit my sis in law and our 3 nieces. It was also Tara's birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA!!! Tara was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and let us stay at her house for a few nights. They live on base in Port Hueneme in Oxnard, California. It was really cool to be able to "live on base" for a few days. Tara's husband Dave is in Afghanistan and she has been alone with 3 girls since he left in June. We don't get to see them enough so were super excited to be able to be with them! We were able to go to the beach and to a pumpkin patch and it was so much fun! I had never been to a real pumpkin patch before, they had tons of pumpkins all different shapes and sizes it was crazy! They were all over in Cali.

Todd and Caleigh burying Audrey in the sand

Danielle was tuckered out- she's such a doll

Audrey was trying to catch the cats with a butterfly net and boy did she succeed. This was so fun to watch, I was laughing so hard I was crying. And once she caught the cat it just sat there and didn't mind at all.

Look how HUGE the stem on this little pumpkin is

They had all sorts of fruit orchards and flower gardens here I loved it!

Pumpkins were sold by size as you can see they had 7 choices the smallest being $2 and the biggest being $20. We bought 2 pumpkins that were not even that big and it cost us $14 wow. Guess you are mostly paying for the patch experience. Then sadly we did not even get to carve our pumpkins before we had to leave so I hope the girls enjoyed carving two!!!
We had such a good time in Cali and it was so nice to be able to get away for a little while. I am glad we were able to visit with Tara and the girls. I don't know how she does it sometimes, being a full time mom with 3 girls and doing school online while having her husband gone. I admire her and the strength she possesses. We love you guys!

Flash Crash Glass

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A few weeks ago I was heading back to Cedar from Salt Lake when all of a sudden BAM!!! The car in front of me must not have been paying attention and hit some debri from a blown tire in the road sending it straight into my windshield. I could not believe what had happened, all of a sudden there was a flash of a big black object a crash and then glass all over. The tire had hit me sure enough and had totally busted my windshield. I immediately felt all these emotions and called Todd to tell him what had happened while also trying to get the license plate number of the car in front of me. I was a bit frustrated and didn't feel that Todd understood what I was telling him so I called my dad and started balling. I couldn't believe that the guy and his wife in the car in front of me did not stop or flag me down or something. They just kept on driving, when I finally caught up with them I motioned to my windshield and the guy looked at me and then turned his head as to ignore me. I couldn't believe it! I didn't know if he would be responsible for what happened or not since the tire was just in the middle of the road but I felt that if he was paying attention he would not have hit it in the first place.

All in all it was a very scary experience for me and I am thankful that no one was in the passenger seat of my car at the time that it happened. As you can see in one of the above pics small pieces of glass were shattered in the front of my car on the dash, floor and front seat. Not only do I feel super lucky that the tire did not go through my windshield but that my dad had helped me to buy some new tires that very same day because I was in need of some and he did not feel safe sending me home on bald ones. Later on after talking to my dad he informed me that he had an uneasy feeling all morning about me heading back home, that he felt I would be in an accident- hence the strong feelings he had to get me new tires that day and not wait. I am not sure if anything different would have happend if the tire would have hit my car and my tires were bald but I am glad we didn't find out. I am so thankful to my dad for all the help he gave to us in getting us new tires and then a new windshield as well! THANKS DAD

A Man of Sorrow and Acquainted with Grief

As some of you may heard a few weeks ago there was a terrible accident near Cedar City involving a tour bus with Japanese tourists on their way to Bryce Canyon. The bus driver had lost control and the bus rolled several times landing on its back with the tires faced up. 11 passengers were injured, 7 critical condition with 3 fatalities. Most of the passengers were flown in critical condition to hospitals in the Salt Lake area while the rest were taken to VVMC in Cedar City.

I remember the night before my brother in law getting the call and running off to a crash on the highway. When he returned I asked him about it and he told me it was bad and I knew that the hospital was going to be incredibly busy and insane the next day or so.

It was the talk of the town, what had happened and how sad of a situation it was. The ER had been slammed that night and all sorts of extra help was needed to get these people the best care possible. It was one of the biggest emergency situations I think this hospital has had and there was soo many traumatic things going on.

One of my patients for the next few days was a man involved in the crash who had 2 children and his wife along with him. His son was the young boy who was killed and his wife and daughter were up in Salt Lake at seperate hospitals in critical condition. I cannot say too much but what I want to say most is how much pain I knew this man was in and how awful of a situation he was experiencing, to be somewhere he was not familiar with and no one speaking his language while his son had died and the rest of his family was up North away from him. He was so worried about them, he sustained injuries himself and he pushed himself to the max to work through those in order to be cleared to go up North to be with his family. He was one of the nicest most sincere people I had ever met in my life. I learned a few lessons from him throughout that week- one of the most important being Foregiveness. He was not mad and did not blame anyone. He was positive the whole time I was with him and he made me want to be a better person. He handled the situation with such grace and dignity that I knew he would be able to move on from this because of his postive attitude.

Working at the hospital I have seen too many sad things, but I have learned that it is a part of life and that it is my job to make the best of it for the patients and their families. I have learned so much and feel that it has changed me in ways I could never explain. I wanted to share this video below because the incident above had reminded me so much of what had happened in Cedar. Many of you will probably remember this story and let me just say if you are going to watch it you may need to grab a tissue box.

**(Don't forget to pause my music at the bottom of the page so you can hear the video. I also apologize because for some reason the whole video is not fitting in the screen :( it is also on youtube if you want the fullscreen version)



My Burden Was Made Light!
What an amazing and spiritual video. I hope that you felt what I felt watching this and that you will want to share it with others. What a wonderful message.
I urge each of you to reach out and forgive someone today :)
If Chris(t) can do it, I think we can!

Bri and Jeff's Rainy Day Engagements

So I have always had a passion and love for photography! Whenever I would go anywhere I always had to have my camera with me, I was always the one to make people stop so we could take pics of each other or the scenery or whatever! I have always wanted to be a "photographer" and I don't know why it took me so long to act upon it. I remember one instance when one of my old roomies didn't want to spend lots of money on a photographer and so I offered to take them! Well she let me and they turned out great! (Thanks Kim) I never really said anything to anybody again but now that I have like 15 friends getting married I decided it would be smart to play around with the camera and take snaps of them and that way I could build up a portfolio and they could use the pics if they wanted free of charge!

Well my friend Bri decided that she wanted me to take some pics of them. I was so excited!!! We planned to go to St. George in the warmer weather and get some nice shots. Well unfortunately when we got there it started pouring rain, just about the whole time! We had to get an umbrella to keep the camera dry - and although it was super hard to get shots we had a blast doing it. Poor Bri and Jeff were soaked after, as you can tell in most of the pics! We are going to try a second time when there is no rain so that we can get some shots that were too hard trying to keep us all under the one umbrella! I have to admit I was really bummed thinking they wouldn't turn out well, but I really love some of them! And although they have raindrops all over them and Bri's hair is in her face in some of them I think it tells a story and shows how much fun we really had that day! They are unique!!!

Thanks Bri and Jeff for letting me take your pics and thanks KJ for helping me out, you made it so much easier, what would I have done in the rain without you haha and thanks to Todd also for coming a little later and supporting me and buying me dinner!!!

(Kjersti my lovely assistant)

Let me know what ya'll think and if you ever want someone to take some pics or just play around with I am trying to expand my portfolio and maybe make a website one day!

If you click on the pictures they will get a bit bigger!
Sadly with this collage it doesn't show the full size of most images so in a few pics their heads are cut out- sorry guys the real pics are much better!

Happy Birthday Todd!

Well I was so excited about being engaged and since I got engaged the day before Todd's birthday I felt it was okay to post about that first and now post about his birthday!!! Todd turned the big 25 on January 17th! We had gone up North to spend time with his family for his b-day and sadly I didn't get any pics. We also celebrated his b-day in Cedar at our dear friends the Smith's home.
I had wanted to make him a cake and since we changed plans last minute to go up North I couldn't bring the supplies with me because then he would see and know what I was up to so I decided to wait till we got back. It worked out perfect because we went bowling the night we got engaged with some of his friends and I was inspired to make a bowling ball cake!!! I think it turned out great and I had a lot of fun doing it! I am thankful to Karen for opening up her home to me to cook dinner and make this cake and I was so glad they and some other friends were able to share his day with us! Thanks all!

I'd like to know what he wished for because he must have really wanted it, he blew with all his might, enough to knock the candle off in one good blow!
I found some of those paddle boards with a bouncy ball on the end, the one you try to hit it back and forth with, I decided to cut off the string and ball and use them as pins


Here is just a few pics of Todd in the past years and months doing things that he loves!
Kayaking at Powell, Todd struggled at first and fell out and lost his sunglasses at the bottom of the lake, I was determined to get them back, he loved those glasses. I found some goggles and was going to dive down and rescue them, however I got about 4 feet down and got scared so I had to grab someone else to do the job and sure enough they found them! You're welcome babe haha ;)
Todd and his massive mullet
He has played baseball and softball all his life and he adores it! He is so good at it too, one of the first things that caught my eye about him, considering I am a softball fanatic myself!!!
Ice Fishing for his b-day last year
Having fun with the guys, what a goof troop (thanks Lyns)

This is a pic from the mish, I love it! I wish I would have had time to find and post more! Check out how classy he looks

Todd I doubt you will see this but I want you to know how much I love you and that I am beyond excited to start my life with you forever. I don't know how I found such an amazing man but I am so thankful and lucky for you and I hope you know that. The Lord truly knew what he was doing when he placed you in my life and although at times I am not sure I deserve you I am so glad that he thinks otherwise. I am going to do whatever it takes to make you the happiest man in all the land! Happy Birthday Bubba I love you!!!

He Liked It So He Put A Ring On It!!!

I'm Engaged!!!
It all started out with Todd and me deciding to go up North for his b-day so that we could see his brother before he was to leave for Texas. His mom really wanted all the family to be together one last time. His birthday was on Sunday the 17th and we got to Heber early afternoon on Sat the 16th. We went to Provo and did a bit of shopping before heading to home. When we got there we went to dinner with his family to Don Pedro's Mexican Restaurant(I highly recommend) It was delicious. After that we deciding to go bowling with some of his friends but they wouldn't be able to come until a bit later so I suggested we just start the first game and they would be there for the second game because Todd said he didn't just want to wait around, so instead he took off driving up toward the mountain and I asked "Where are we going"? He said "I dunno, but I don't just really want to sit around".
At this point I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little curious and had thought in my head, maybe he is going up the mountain to propose. We had this on going joke about how he would take me up into the mountains and I would know exactly what was going on. Well I was wrong, it turns out we really were just driving around. Todd knows I love wild animals so he asked if I wanted to go look for some Elk and I said Yeah!!! Unfortunately it was too dark and we didn't have a spot light with us.
We got to the bowling alley and bowled a few games with his friend and his wife. We then headed for home. Todd turned on his signal and turned left, I said again "where are we going" and he replied "you'll see" and inside I was like oh no not again, thinking that he may be proposing but also trying to talk myself out of getting excited because I didn't truly believe that is what he was going. I thought we were going to his friends house who we drove right past, he turned into the baseball diamond and parked and got out. I said "what are you doing"? I said can I get out of the car too, and he replies "sure". He came over to me and started looking around and pointing at things saying what is that and his eyes kept wondering. I thought there was someone behind us the way he was looking so I quickly turned around to see nothing. This is the field that T has a lot of his softball tournaments on and we use to go lay on the field and look at the stars. One night we were looking at the stars and this guy with a hood on walked right up to us and said "Hey, hows it going" and walked away. He walked right up to us as we were laying down and scared the crap out of both of us, I thought he was coming to shoot us and Todd was freaked out too. Anyway so he started joking about that guy and I was getting scared again, he then asked if I remembered what happened at this very spot? I said yes, that this is the spot I told him I knew I wanted to marry him. He then asked, "Do you want to make that twice"? I said YES, still not fully understanding what he was asking, he then started fiddling in his coat pocket and I started saying, "you better not be teasing me, he then pulled out a beautiful box and got down on one knee and opened the box, inside was a most unique and rather sparkling ring!!!! He then asked if I would marry him. I just leaned forward and hugged him, then forgotten I hadn't answered and said "YES"! He laughed with a sigh of relief and said because I hadn't answered he wasn't sure if my hug was a good or bad one so he was very relieved when I gave a yes a few seconds later!
I am so excited to start my life with him and become Mrs. Stefanie Lawton

Something Old Something New

OLD
So for those of you who don't know I left my job in Salt Lake at Legacy House to come to Cedar City again. Shortly after moving down I got a job and had been working at Diamond Ranch Academy- for troubled kids. I really liked my job but I hated traveling to Hurricane every time I had to work and I also was getting nervous about the drive in all the bad weather. My lovely sister Jenny had been looking for jobs postings in Cedar and e-mailing them to me. I had really wanted to try to get on at the hospital. Well sure enough there was a need and I applied and got the job! I was amazed because I know there was a lot of people who applied for it and I felt so grateful that I was chosen.
For the last 4 years or so I have been working at an Assisted Living with the elderly. I dearly loved my job, loved is an understatement. My job was my life and the people who I took care of were my family. After losing a resident whom I was very close to it was never the same, I still liked it but something was different and I was ready to try something new. It was so hard to leave there and say goodbye to everyone especially because I knew I would never see some of them again :(
People always tell me that they could never have a job like that, and that they don't understand how I can do all that I do. I wish that they could have a day in the life of me while working there and they would see that it is anything but work. You gain friendships and give service and are respected loyally and it is wonderful and I would recommend it to ANYONE!
I want to post some pics from the past just to let you see how fun my job was and how much I miss it.







(The above video is priceless, I worked in the Alzheimer's unit and they usually don't remember much but Ruthy always could whip out a song you would name and start playing it on the piano. She's remember anything musically- Here is one of her playing We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet)

















NEW
And for my new job at the Hospital it is a whole different world over here. So many new protocols and rules and different terminologies to use but I am getting the hang of it and I love it. I get to do so much more with the patients, take out staples, helped deliver a baby, take out drains and iv's etc etc some pretty cool and gory stuff! Something really different is that there are new patients everyday, I am not able to get use to the same people because once they get better they go home. I am currently working 3 days a week -12 hour shifts, it gets a bit tiring but I hope to get use to it soon! I am very lucky to have such a good job and it offers me great benefits which is a total plus! I learn new things every day and I love the knowledge that it brings me!