Hope for the Hopeless

Lovelies, 

I started this blog with a heavy emphasis on the power of words, of quotes, to explain our feelings and say the words that express the feelings we often are too overwhelmed by emotion to find. The inspiration that comes from reading a particular quote that matches exactly what you are going through and says what you cannot, is an experience unlike any other. It's comforting to know you are not alone. We all have stories, problems, and dreams and everyone of you is important. There is hope out there, miracles occur in the face of impossibility and improbability, and when your time is right, once upon a time, we find magic in the form of love that defies everything.

That being said, I think it's quote time :)
<3 C

"Peace of mind is something I'll never find. It's something I'll never know until I find you. I'm out of time, blame it on the doubts of mine. Blame it on the thoughts I refuse to face. A love lost wasn't love. Quit blaming yourself. I get lost in the words we choose to say. We get lost inside of ourselves but found in someone else."

-Jacob Gann

"A deep understanding runs through us even in the midst of misunderstanding."

-Cassia Reyes, Matched

"Is falling in love with someone's story the same as falling in love with the person himself?"

-Cassia, Matched

"Let me believe in this, all of this, and you believe in it, too."

-Ky Markham, Matched

"Now I live in his story. Now I am a part of his, and he of mine, and the part we write together sometimes feels like the only part that matters."

-Cassia, Matched

"I believe in you. That's more faith that I ever thought I'd have."

-Ky, Matched

"The chance to glimpse what was lost distracted me from what must be found."

-Cassia, Matched

"You don't play with other people's lives."

-Ky, Matched

"Sometimes it feels like everything I've done has been to help you be ready for someone else."

-Xander Carrow, Matched

"Because in the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go."

-Ky Markham, Crossed

"Do you know what it's like for someone to choose to leave you?"

-Xander Carrow, Crossed

"Much as I love looking at the stars, I never learned to guide by them. I mark my course by people."

-Cassia Reyes, Crossed

"I climb into the dark for you

Are you waiting in the stars for me?"
-Cassia, Crossed

"Her beauty always makes me ache."

-Ky, Crossed

"I think of how many invisible injuries are possible. Ones scored on your heart, your brain, your bones. How do we all stand? I wonder. What is it that keeps us moving?"

-Cassia, Crossed

"I know what it's like to miss someone. I know what it's like to miss the past, to wish you could go back in time. But you need to realize that you can't. You can't miss it anymore, because you can't go back. You need to stop building the memories up in your head, and see them for what the really were. A few great days surrounded by a lot of terrible ones. And you need to realize that you deserve someone who makes everyday great."

"I could build a dream that we won't ever wanna wake up from."

-Kris Allen

"The light of love flows out of our soul, but often it's blocked by our fear to show it."

-Paulo Coehlo

"I find myself thinking more about the people I've never met, rather than the people I see on a daily basis."

"Life is impossible. And miraculous."

-Caterina Scorsone

"We create our own destiny."
-Alex Karev

"Your life is a gift, accept it, no matter how screwed up or painful it seems to be. Somethings are going to work out as if they were destined to happen. As if they were just meant to be."

-Meredith Grey Webber

"Understand that the past cannot and will not take you down. If it didn't then, it certainly can't now."

-Maggie Lyon

"I vow to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands."

-The Vow

"You can't give up on the things you love. Not ever."

-Charlotte King

"Astronomers have attempted to count the number of stars in the universe. One group of scientists estimates that the number of stars within range of our telescopes is 10 times greater than all the grains of sand on the world's beaches and deserts. That is a paradox of man:compared to God, man is nothing:yet we are everything to God.

God knows that some of the greatest souls who have ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history. They are the blessed, humble souls who emulate the Savior's example and spend the days of their lives doing good."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"In the family relationship love is really spelled t-i-m-e."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"My strength as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure."

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

"It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee, and though you may call me a dreamer or fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible."

Noah Calhoun, The Notebook

"Miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things."

-Noah, The Notebook

"It had changed him forever. Perfect love did that to a person."

-Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

"A 'living poem' had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others."

"Poetry wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding."

-Allie, The Notebook

"Everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours."

-Noah, The Notebook

"Everything good happens after 2am."

-Brie

"Forever is composed of nows."

"I had to know he existed, that was all. Everything else I could endure. So long as he existed."

"What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet."

"I had never done anything that took my own breath away, and I suppose now that was part of the problem--my chronic inability to astonish myself. I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself."

"Promises are like the full moon. If they are not kept at once, they diminish day by day."

-German proverb

"Time passes quickly. We cannot call back time that is past, we cannot stop time that now is, and we cannot experience the future in our present state. Time is a gift, a treasure not to be put aside for the future but to be used wisely in the present."

-Thomas S. Monson

"We are unaware of hosts of blessings that we receive from day to day."

-Quentin L. Cook

"There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent or hinder of control the firm resolve of a determined soul."
-Marion D. Hanks

"Thee lift me and I'll lift thee, and we will ascend together."

-Proverb

"We can't predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come."

-L. Tom Perry

"I am only a blurry, in-between face, easy to forget. Not pretty. Not ugly, either. Just plain, like a thousand other faces you would see on the street."

-Lena, Delirium

"You have to go forward no matter what happens."

-Lena, Delirium

"Love: It will kill you and save you, both."

-Lena, Delirium

"I vowed after that day that I would be your hero too, no matter how long it took."

-Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

"So many things become beautiful when you really look."

-Sam, Before I Fall

"Everyone can be fixed."

-Sam, Before I Fall

"I marvel at how even the wrong choices can keep us on the right path. How the worst mistake can wind up being the best thing that ever happened to us. Even if you chose a fairly rocky journey, everything seemed to come full circle to bring you back to this one, perfect moment: exactly where you're meant to be."

-Jaden, Cross My Heart

"When you love someone you love them. And every day you sit back pretending that you don't is one less day you have with them."

-Phillip, Cross My Heart

"Shouldn't you be with your friends, staring at yourselves in the mirror?"

-Veronica "Ronnie" Miller, The Last Song

"Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

-Anna Karenina

"This is who I am, and this is what I enjoy, and of all the people I know right now, I want to enjoy this experience with you."
-Will Blakelee, The Last Song

"There are guys who grow up thinking they'll settle down some distant time in the future, and there are guys who are ready for marriage as soon as they meet the right person: The former bore me, mainly because they're pathetic; and the latter, quite frankly, are hard to find. But it's the serious ones I'm interested in, and it takes time to find a guy like that whom I'm equally interested in. I mean, if the relationship can't survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?"

-Megan Blakelee, The Last Song

"IMTF=In My Thoughts Forever."

-Will, The Last Song

"In the end, you should always do the right thing even if it's hard."

-Ronnie, The Last Song

"It was incredible to think that after weeks of absolutely nothing happening, everything she'd been waiting for would be over in a matter of minutes."

-Ronnie

"It's not like it changes anything, but everything has changed."

-Ronnie

"In hindsight, the pieces all fit together. Yet everything was falling apart."

-Ronnie

"Nothing is more fulfilling than love itself."

-Steve Miller, The Last Song

"I have faith that God will show you the answer. But you have to understand that sometimes it takes a while to be able to recognize what God wants you to do. That's how it often is. God's voice is usually nothing more than a whisper, and you have to listen very carefully to hear it. But other times, in those rarest of moments, the answer is obvious and rings as loud as a church bell. God always answers."

-Pastor Harris, The Last Song

"Never take anyone for granted."

"In the state of grace you trust in yourself and destiny. You can celebrate other people's blessings, knowing that their gifts are right and appropriate for them and that fate has your gift right around the corner."

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
-Thomas Edison

"Grief is like sinking, like being buried. I am in water the tawny color of kicked-up dirt. Every breath is full of choking. There is nothing to hold onto, no sides, no way to claw myself up. There is nothing to do but let go. Let go. Feel the weight all around you, feel the squeezing of your lungs, the slow, low pressure. Let yourself go deeper. There is nothing but bottom. There is nothing but the taste of metal, and the echoes of old things, and days that look like darkness."

-Lena, Pandemonium

"You can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time."

-Lena, Pandemonium

"There is so much fragility in kissing, in other people. It is all glass."

-Lena

"There are some things, I guess, that come naturally, even if you've never done them before."

-Lena

"Distance does not ruin people's relationships. You don't have to see someone everyday to be in love."

-Paige-Madison

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."
-The Dalai Lama

"A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It's only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and over think and hesitate."

"Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. It's the voice inside you that yells, 'I can't!' But you do not listen. You must push forward. Then you hear that voice fade away and start to whisper, 'I can.' That is the moment you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are."

"What happened to old fashion love? When the guys chased the girls. When guys would run to open the car door for you. When you could talk to each other in the middle of the grass. When you could spontaneously start dancing in the middle of the street. When saying I love you meant I love you. What happened?"

-Brett Williams

"In some cultures, when they mend broken objects they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful."

"I know life isn't life if you just float through it. I know that the whole point is to find the things that matter, and hold onto them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go."

-Lena, Delirium

"Hate is the ugliest form of human behavior. Learn to love."

"You think you know someone and then something happens that changes things and forces you to come to the realization that you don't know them at all. Trust is such a rare thing but it means everything."

-Charley Brooke

"Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you."

-Coldplay

"Not knowing is a thousand times more horrible than facing your fear."

Lone Wolf, Jodi Picoult

"Mistakes are like the memories you hide in an attic: old love letters from relationships that tanked, photos of dead relatives, toys from a childhood you miss. Out of sight is out of mind, but somewhere deep inside you know they still exist. And you also know you're avoiding them."

-Lone Wolf, Jodi Picoult

"Turn around, and the people you thought you knew might chance. That is the reason that dancers learn, early on, how to spot while doing pirouettes:we all want to be able to find the place where we started."

-Lone Wolf

"Doubt is like dye. Once it spreads into the fabric of excuses you've woven, you'll never get rid of the stain."

-Lone Wolf

"Because when you get down to it, the only person you can trust is the one you'd lay down your own life for."

-Lone Wolf

"The scariest thing in the world is thinking that someone you love is going to die."

-Lone Wolf

"Like a missing tooth, sometimes an absence is more noticeable than a presence."

-Jodi Picoult

"Can you really be mad at someone for doing something stupid if they truly, one hundred percent, thought they were doing what was right?"

-Jodi Picoult

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

I didn't understand the definition of the word busy until these last two weeks...

Between family issues, housesitting, work, getting ready to go back to school, making preparations to move back in with Rian & Hannah & our new roommate Janis, and all the other things in life, I feel like I barely have time to breathe or do much of anything! 

I am sorry lovelies that I have been lacking in posting. I appreciate your love & understanding. You, my lovelies, are the loveliest people ever. 

WANTED: So one of my best friends (and practically older sister) Brie was having a tough day yesterday... a really bad day. Anyways, she was crying and upset and had to work. She works at a local bookstore. Well this cute boy walks in and starts talking to her. She had just wiped away tears, but you could tell she had been sobbing. This boy asked what was wrong. She insisted she was "fine". He finally said okay and left. A few minutes later, the boy returned with a bag of cookies he bought to cheer her up and then left. CUTEST THING EVER? Aw... that is so sweet.

If you are the cookie boy or know the cookie boy, contact me!

Brie is married and we had a sleepover yesterday for the first time in more than a year (our last one was the night before she got married). Amazing times. She told me she wished she would've asked for his number for me or given him my number but that she was just in shock and stunned at this boy's act of kindness. I wish she would've! He sounds like the kind of boy I want. I had to share how lovely that was of him to do that. Proof that chivalry does exist; more than that, there really is a 0.01% of guys out there who are hopeless romantics.

Really, if you are the cookie guy who gave cookies to my sad friend Brie in Pocatello, Idaho, I want to meet you. Haha :) Seriously though... can you blame me?! 

I just finished reading Lauren Oliver's Delirium. 

I wrote a post about this book earlier this year. I hadn't read it yet but put some quotes from the book I read online. I wrote that I wanted to read it. I thought it sounded amazing. It was more than amazing. I was breathless at the end. I started reading it and couldn't put it down. I finished it in less than a day. That's how absolutely wonderful it is. I will give you a brief summary below, and if you are a bookworm like me and haven't read this yet, I bet you will rush to a bookstore and buy it right now.

Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't. 

Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life, until ninety-five days before her eighteenth birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

I am severely suffering from post-book depression at the moment... I have since I finished this masterpiece yesterday. I am in shock. I related to Lena in an unbelievable amount of ways. I fell in love with Alex as she did. I fell in love with this book. I am in love with it. The cliffhanger this book leaves you on is just torturous. I HAVE to know what happens next. This will be a trilogy. The second book Pandemonium doesn't come out until March 2012! If the deliria doesn't completely drive me mad before then, it will be a miracle.

They say don't judge a book by its cover.

However, these covers are nearly as gorgeous as the book itself.

I'm going to share a few more of my favorite quotes (I shared some in my previous post about the book). If you don't want spoilers, don't read any further. There may be some!

"This is what I want. This is the only thing I've ever wanted. Everything else--every single second of every single day that has come before this very moment, this kiss--has meant nothing."

-Lena Haloway

"The streets are empty by now. The whole city is silent and still. The whole city might have wound down into nothing, burned away while we were in the shed, and I wouldn't have noticed or cared. The walk home is fuzzy, a dream. He holds my hand the whole way and we stop to kiss twice, again in the longest, deepest shadows we can find. Both times I wish the shadows were solid, had weight, and they would fold down around us and bury us there so we could stay like that forever, chest to chest, lip to lip. Both times I feel my chest seize up when he pulls away and takes my hand and we have to start walking again, not kissing, like suddenly I can only breathe correctly when we are.

Somehow--too soon--I'm home, and whispering goodbye to him and feeling his lips brush mine one last time, as light as wind.

Then I'm sneaking into the house and up the stairs and into the bedroom, and it's not until I've been lying in bed for a long time, shivering, aching, missing him already, that I realize my aunt and my teachers and the scientists are right about the deliria. As I lie there with the hurt driving through my chest and the sick, anxious feeling churning through me and the desire for Alex so strong inside of me it's like a razor blade edging its way through my organs, shredding me, all I can think is: It will kill me, it will kill me. And I don't care."

-Lena

Read Delirium. You will become infected with amor deliria nervosa too!

Can you say FIRE?

The mountains across the valley from my parents house was on fire yesterday.

It was getting close to burning down the high school I went to and will love forever.

Luckily, it was contained.

It burned quite a bit of land and one house though.

The view from my parents deck was spectacular especially to see the fire glowing bright orange when the sun was gone and night took it's place.