Look for the little things

Today we had the most amazing lesson in Relief Society on Perspective and I just wanted to share some of my favorite things that were shared today. The teacher told us eight points on trials and gaining perspective.

1. We must gain a vision of ourselves as the Savior sees us.
2. It is your Reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life story will develop.
3. Experiences will allow us to Develop the traits and attributes we need to become more Christlike.
4.To Gain eternal perspective while we are going through tests we are spiritually refined and strengthened
5. Adversity teaches us things we cannot lean other wise.
6. Increased Faith.
( I didn't get two of them down, but they were awesome too)

"With your will you can choose to see either the darkness through the light or brightness through shadows"


Sometimes I forget to look for the small things to be happy about when I am  sad or just having a rough time in life. It is so amazing to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me no matter what! He loves each and every person that has every been or every will be on this earth. I know that he loves all of you!!! It is such a wonderful feeling to know that at least one person loves and cares about you and always will. That you can always turn to them for help and guidance. It's beautiful!

I hope you all have a lovely Sunday and a beautiful week!LOVE YOU!
-Love Ashley

An Ode to Spring! ( Revisited)

I was searching around on my Blog and I found this silly little poem I wrote... even though spring is still like a month away I figure we should celebrate the last days of winter with this poem! Enjoy :)

Spring , Spring you seem, so near.

Spring spring you give me cheer.

You bring hope of sunshine so bright.

That just thinking of you it lights up my night.

Spring I can see you now

Winter please don't have a cow

So please stop bringing more snow

And please stop making the wind blow!

Spring spring your finally here

Spring spring to bring everyone cheer

the grass is getting greener every day

and flowers are popping up to play.

By: Ashley Hansen

Happiness

So for the past couple of days I have had a song stuck in my head. You know the one that talks about "Happiness is two scoops of ice cream...." or maybe you don't. This cute little singing group from where I grew up sang it at one of their concerts. Anyways so I have been reflecting on the state of happiness and what it really is, and I have come to decide that happiness is not something you can define because it is different for everyone. For me happiness really can be two scoops of (chocolate) ice cream or it could be as simple as spending time with good company, whereas to someone clear across the world they could hate ice cream and what makes them happy is brussel sprouts ( I am not saying that I hate brussel sprouts.... to be honest I don't even know if have ever tried them). I hope wherever you are today that you can find your "Two scoops of ice cream" and I wish you all the laughter that this world can give :)

Oh the many happenings of my life since October in a brief blog post :)

Aren't we so Christmasy?

See I have lots of stripes!

My best Friend got Engaged !

Wow,so guess what? FINALS ARE OVER and another semester of college has successfully gone by! Can you tell I am ecstatic? Now I have time to just read books that I actually want to read! I know your probably thinking you crazy girl you just had to read a million bazillion things for all of those awesome classes that are know over! Yes I get you point but I love reading and now I can actually read some books that I want to read. So here are some random happening since the last time I posted. For Halloween I dressed up as a zebra, well I tried to look like a zebra, according to everyone that saw me I looked like a scary goth girl, but hey in my defense I had plenty of zebra strips, I guess wearing black lipstick and heavy black makeup against my super ghost- like skin just freaks people out. Regardless of everyone getting guessing my costume wrong I had loads of fun. My friends and I went and saw Dracula the ballet. I don't think I have ever been scared watching ballet in my life until that night, but I was surprised at how good it was. It was the classic story of Dracula the vampire, who loves to bite peoples necks and suck their blood. Ew, just saying that makes me cringe! The month of November ushered in a lot of beards. Is it bad that I am not really a fan of no shave November. Thanksgiving was super fun, I just spent time with family which is really the best thing in the world. And now it's December! Only two weeks or less then two weeks until Christmas. I am so excited and finals are officially over can I get a hip hip hooray?

SNOW!!!!

The chill in the air at six o'clock in the morning made me want to duck back under my covers and not come out until it was summer again. I gingerly slipped out of bed trying not to gasp as my toes touched the chilly floor. I rushed through my regular morning routine and hurriedly grabbed my back pack as a flung open the door. I stopped in surprise as I looked out at the world before me.....it was white! The night had changed the world that lay outside my door where it had been covered in the colorful falls leaves before now snow lay gently across the grass and delicate snowflakes swirled down from heaven.This is the sight that greeted my hazel eyes yesterday morning. The first snow of the season is always magical. It is announcing a change in life, time is moving on. It's beautiful!
(The Logan temple on this beautiful snowy day, and the view of the first snow outside the llc at eight forty in the morning)

Fall Break

Life has been going super crazy fast, there never seems to be enough hours in a day to get things done or to just relax before it's time to go to bed and then wake up and start all over again. I got a new job and I enjoy it much more then Opinionology. I no longer have to call people and annoy them into taking surveys, which is great because annoyed people generally tend to yell mean things at you. It's almost like they don't realize you are a real person. Being on the phone you never see the persons face so it really is like they don't really exist they are just a floating voice on the phone line whose sole purpose is to annoy and aggravate people. From working there I have learned to be more patient with the people who call me to get surveys or to sell me something because a little kindness even from a stranger goes a long way. The times that I didn't despise working there were when the people I called treated me like I was a person who had feelings, and really no matter how hard I tried the rude things that people said still affected my mood even though I knew they weren't really angry at me but at being bothered by another survey call. Now I clean student housing on campus and it's wonderful, I don't have to talk to anyone if I don't want to, I could just ignore the whole population of student housing it's great. Of course I don't ignore them because that would be plain rude but it's kinda nice to know that I could ignore them and not get in trouble for doing so. This past weekend was fall break and it was blissful, I didn't have to work on Friday because we had no school and I am not required to work on days that there is no school which is amazing! For fall break I went home and just hung out with my beautiful wonderful parents and my sister and brother in law and my cute little nephew. Going home is one of the most peaceful things in the world. I miss the quietness of the farm. I am not saying Logan is a huge city but it still sometimes feels overly crowded compared to Elwood. I love how we don't have to close our blinds in the living room at home because nobody is around to peek in the window, but in Logan it feels like the whole apartment complex is watching you if you don't close your living room blinds, I really despise that feeling, not that I am blaming the other people who live in my apartment complex because at night when it's dark outside and you have your lights on in your living room it is super easy to see in.Also I missed chasing cows back into their pens. I got to do that over fall break and it was soooo much fun. Now you may think that's a little odd but it's just something I have always loved doing maybe it's because cows are the only things that are bigger than me that are scared of me so I can actually chase them back into their pens.I am glad though that the pig didn't get out, pigs are way to smart, cows are cute but they aren't the sharpest pencil in the box. I get to go back to school tomorrow, and I really don't want to. Fall break reminded me of summer and now I just want it to be fall break every day, though I am  sure that I would get tired of fall break if it lasted forever. Anyways I hope you all have a very happy week!

SPECTACULAR!

TEN Years Ago TODAY my parents were married and then a couple years later they were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple. Isn't it so amazing how fast time goes? I am so happy and grateful that my Dad married my Step Mom Lisa, she is amazing! This picture is a couple years old and missing a couple of people now but I absolutely love it, especially the fact that my niece got a hold of my brothers hair :)