Simply Shelby

New Years Eve more than any day of the year makes you really reflect on your life, at least that's how it seems to be for me. You reflect on the year you've just had. You wonder if you've done something memorable in the duration of the year. This year you've experienced a birthday, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now you've made it to New Years Eve. People are making resolutions (you'll get to hear mine tomorrow), people are spending time with those they love, and everyone is celebrating surviving 2012 because many people thought that we wouldn't, thanks to the Mayans. Now I'd like to share a few memories of my 2012 because it was one of the biggest years of my life. During 2012 Shelby Jean Forsyth: 1. Worked 2 jobs at once (thankfully not for very long). 2. Turned 19. 3. Passed Statistics with an "A." 4. Decided to move to Utah. 5. Drove across the U.S. with my mother. 6. Moved to Utah. 7. Lived in my first ever apartm...

I've been seriously slacking on my blogging lately. It's probably because since Thanksgiving my mind has been no where but counting down to my trip home. Words cannot express how excited I am to be home, to be where people say "ma'am" and "sir." There is something special about the South and being raised there. You never fully appreciate it until you step outside of that Southern comfort zone. I fly home Sunday and it could not come fast enough. In other news, I had a fantastic weekend at my grandparents last weekend. They are the greatest and I am so lucky to have the relationship that I have with them. When I make trips to their house I usually take my laundry and do my laundry there. This weekend, I was carrying my heavy laundry basket downstairs to the laundry room, and managed to fall down at least 5 stairs. Needless to say I have a nasty bruise on my bum and there is no fun in that. It was painful at the time, but made a good story at work Mond...

Well Folks, it's been exactly 102 days since my car left home and headed out west. Each day that I'm away from home I discover more about myself, my relationships, and my Heavenly Father. It's hard to place a time or a date to your life changing especially when it happens over a period of time and through many hard lessons. Now more than ever I realize the importance of relying on my Heavenly Father in all times, in all things, and in all places. I have such a testimony of the love my Savior gives me. He is my constant companion and he is my everything. At times things can get dark and things can get lonely. During these moments of trial we too often forget our divine worth. We were all sent here with a unique and special plan. We were destined for greatness and we were destined to allow ourselves to achieve that divine potential. I have learned to never give up on my Savior, because when I don't give up on him I don't give up on myself. These past 102 days have...

It has been one of those days. I got off work, had to go grocery shopping, realized I left my grocery list at work, and ended up buying basically everything I wanted instead of everything I needed. It really goes to show you that sometimes you just have to go with the flow. I got home, unloaded the groceries, ate dinner and discovered that I had the motivation to do absolutely. .nothing . After watching the latest Nashville episode (which I highly recommend watching) I realized I better do something productive. For about two weeks our bathroom sick hasn't been draining the best. Living with 5 other girls I was honestly surprised it hadn't clogged up before now. Girls tend to lose lots of things in their sinks. While grocery shopping I decided to be proactive and buy Drano (which from far away looks like Draco..Harry Potter nerd for life, yo) for our sink. I was just about sick and tired of the draining being slower than a sailboat on a wind-less day. So I put the Drano in t...

What a surprise it was to wake up one morning last week to snow on the mountaintops. Coming from Florida, I never have really gotten to experience the change of seasons. I became overwhelmed by the love I felt from my Savior. What a beautiful world our Heavenly Father has created. It makes me sad to think that people can deny his existence when they see things such as a fall day and the leaves on the trees change colors. When I was up in the mountains (see pictures above) I felt as if I have never lived before that moment. The beauty of this world is breathtaking. I am so blessed to live in this magical place. Over the past few weeks life has taught me lessons that I wasn't quite expecting. Living away from home for the first time brings challenges such as not being able to control what others do/don't do in our apartment, learning that the apartment will never be as clean as I expect it to be, people will do things for their own reasons and not yours, and many more. I...

          Every now and then when I find myself with enough collected thoughts to talk about, I blog. I normally start it off with something in my life, relate it to something that can uplift someone else, and sometimes end with something to challenge whoever might be reading this (that sentence had a lot of "something" in it..oops). So today I will start off by saying how much I love Sunday naps, except today when I fall asleep with headphones in my ears and wake up with them swallowing me. It was..odd and uncomfortable. Any who, Today obviously was a Sunday. It was our regional conference which means my roommates and I drove to the Marriott Center along with about 20,000 other Young Single Adults to hear talks about Christ and to learn more of the gospel. Coming from a town where the members of the LDS faith are small and minuscule, being surrounded by 20,000 people around my age that shared my same beliefs and values was simply breathtaking and a te...

Bad days are bad and bad weeks are even worse. I think i'm at this point where I'm really starting to miss home so everything else seems to be falling apart. Things such as the bathroom door breaking off, hitting my head on the freezer door, having long days at work, and getting used to being around 5 other girls is a LOT of work. Okay, don't get me wrong. I LOVE my roommates. I adore each and every one of them but my whole life I've grown up with brothers so being around this many girls all the time is an adjustment for sure. So even though things aren't going the greatest, I still am so lucky. I feel like these trials are strengthening my testimony of Christ each and every day because I know he is always there for me and he has been through much, much worse. The fact about trials is we don't get to choose them. Sometimes we bring them upon ourselves by the decisions and choices we make, but most of the time trials hit us and it's hard to understand wh...