HAPPY BIRTHDAY

   Yes, I did it again – my Big Birthday Bash. This year, about 250 people – it was AMAZING! Great friends, family, food, fun. And I did it because it’s what I do: I Celebrate. I look for opportunities to celebrate life. And despite ups-and-downs, I definitely have a life to be celebrated!

   “Another year older and another year wiser” – I’d say that is definitely true this year. Twice each year I get very introspective: New Years and my Birthday – and fortunately they’re about 6 months apart. I have been thinking back to New Years – because that’s when this last “episode” all began – and I never could have imagined all that happened, and especially not the tragic, heartwrenching ending. I am still deeply wounded and reeling from the heartache, but I am also determined to remember the good times and learn the lessons that are there – and there are plenty of lessons, and I am learning them and sharing them.

   And now it’s time to look forward again too, and make new plans for the new future ahead of me. I am still blessed with amazing friends, whose love and support has been amazing. I am still blessed with an amazing job – which continues to get better and better (and which pays freakishly well). I am still blessed with an amazing family that I cannot imagine my life without. And I am still blessed with the most tremendous ward and ward family.

   So, these past few days I’ve been asked: “What do you want for your birthday?” After thinking about it, here’s my Birthday Wish List:

• Peace – I have knowledge of my Savior’s love for me, and peace in knowing I am blameless before Him.
• Love – If not the love of a husband, then the amazing love of family and friends that surrounds me constantly. 
  
• Hope – Hope for a different but amazing future, filled with success and prosperity, joy and happiness, and knowledge that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to.
• Happiness – Despite still having many tear-filled nights, I am also blessed with an abundance of happiness. Happiness in the gospel. Happiness in a life filled with love. Happiness to not let the Sins of others destroy me and to always turn toward the Light.
• Forgiveness – I forgive – not because it was asked for (and probably never will be), but because I refuse to let hurt and anger consume me. I forgive because I deserve a heart that is healed. 

   So I am choosing to live a fabulous life filled with tremendous opportunities—and lots of fun. I have a number of trips coming up. I am embarking on a new “hobby” with SendOutCards, and having a blast with it. My Training Career is doing amazingly well, and new opportunities are appearing in my life constantly.

   It has been a Happy Birthday. It has been a Happy Life. Certainly there are ups-and-downs, but I choose to live a happy life – and I have so many amazing blessings in my life now that the future can only be even better tomorrow than today. And for all of you that bring that amazing gift of Happy-ness into my life, I thank you.

MY GIFT TO YOU:  As I have been so blessed this birthday, I want to give a gift to all of you!

Go to: www.SendOutCards.com/157713 -- then scroll to the bottom and select SEND A CARD. You can send a FREE card to anyone -- and the postage is included!