First of all, I am so grateful for all the love and support that has poured in! It has been absolutely touching. Your words of support, warm wishes, prayers and so much more have been so comforting! THANK YOU!
Both my hubby and daughter are doing very well! … Still a little sore but recovering well. The car, on the other hand, was just declared a total loss. 🙁 …
Funny story tho: When my little boy asked when we would get our car back – all fixed, I said, “Honey, we aren’t gonna get it back. It went to car heaven.” He slumped over and let out a big sigh. Then yesterday when we went to the salvage yard to get all of our things out of the car, my sweet guy saw the car and excitedly exclaimed, “Mom, is THIS car heaven??!!?” I love his sweet innocence! 😀
We’ve already called 911. Who is in the car?” My daughter responded, “Me and my dad”. Merri heard my daughter and recognized her voice and said, “Oh my goodness! It’s me, Merri!” What a beautiful blessing and miracle to have Merri, an incredible paramedic, a dear friend and my daughter’s Young Women’s leader, there at the scene to assist them in this catastrophic accident, just moments after it all happened. Still buckled in, upside down, my daughter told Ryan that Merri was there and she was going to help them. Once they were in a secure position, Merri pushed their seatbelt buttons and they fell to 
the ground. Then they crawled out through the back of the car. They were, indeed, protected and I am so grateful to the Lord for preserving their lives!
when she got there but really felt there were a couple more she wanted to do. So she was using my husbands iPad to find the names as they were driving. It took her a little while but she finally found two of them and felt those were what she needed. She put the iPad down on the middle console. Then she grabbed her scriptures and began reading in 
knows us. He loves us. He will bless us. As my daughter shared this experience with another dear friend of ours, Toni, said, “I’m sure those family members, who you were searching for while traveling in the car and those you had found earlier in the week, were there protecting you and your dad. They needed you to finish their work.” When she said that, I could feel such power and peace come over me.
Please consider supporting me and the making of these videos through making your purchases to places like Amazon (and others listed on my 
You will find their use of classifiers, facial expressions, use of space and many other ASL components are amazing to watch and would be useful in mirroring and expounding on in your own practice. Not only that, the ‘Watch’ section of the apps give you a beautiful opportunity to practice voicing.
Now, at that time, I was about 190 pounds. I had lots of reasons why the weight kept coming on. I was a busy mom of 4 little people. I worked many hours. I worked as an interpreter (it’s a ‘grab food and run’ kind of job). I had my own self doubt and lack of motivation. I was motivated to do many things but quite often taking care of myself seemed to slide right off my list. Shopping, especially clothes shopping, was NOT a hobby of mine. Most of the time, I cried when it came to shopping.
although I knew my shoes wouldn’t be the top-of-the-line, I still wanted the best I could find for the money I had. I felt very blessed that day as the shoes I liked the most were on sale and I walked out, more committed to train for this 5k.
Today is April 15th, one of the most stressful days of the year for many Americans. TAX DAY! … But regardless, of when you are reading this blog, have a quiet, honest moment with yourself … Are you feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? Need a little something to relax you and refresh you? Why not try something quite delightful to help eliminate the stresses of life:
3/4 cup raw honey
love, Ryan Layton. I am so grateful for the blessing of being married for time and all eternity to the man I have grown to really love, appreciate and admire. We were married and sealed in the Las Vegas LDS Temple on April 14, 2000.
blooming all over and pretty white fluffy clouds in the blue sky. That was the day for me! … And then I grew up and realized that April 15th wasn’t the funnest of days, for this was the day your taxes would be due and blah for that. Ha. But I still wanted April and I realized a prettier looking day would be April 14th. Just the numbers rang beautiful to me! The year 2000 was the year I really wanted to be married! I wanted a number that was easy to remember how many years I was married, every year. I didn’t want to have to subtract, add, borrow, discuss, figure out, look at journals or anything else 
to figure out how many years it had been. So the day I wanted to marry was April 14, 2000! 😀
I lived in Vegas. Several months later, I received an email from him. His company had decided to relocate to LV and that very weekend he would be in town to check out apartments. Drats! That weekend was New Years Eve and I already had plans to go to an old high school friend’s home for a little party. All of my friends would be there. So Ryan and I agreed to visit the next day, if we could work out our schedules.
Ryan! WHAT??? Why, how, HUH?? He was there in MY friend’s kitchen! As we exchanged the “Huh? How do you know Lauren?”‘s, we soon learned that Lauren was my friend AND Ryan’s cousin!!! What a small world! Needless to say, Ryan and I hung out all weekend! Looking back, I remember Lauren, in high school, telling me about her Deaf cousin who was at Gallaudet University. How cool I thought that was, but I was a sophomore in high school! … And that meant he was old! Ha.
February 14, 2000: Valentines Day, lunchtime. I stood on the exit corner of the parking lot where Ryan worked. I was with a very loving and trusting friend, Angela Darling, who kept rooting me on (from her car), to be brave! Dressed up as a homeless girl, I held a sign. My sign read, “Will work for love” … or something like that! It was corny and I loved being corny, especially for something that was worthy of it! And to me, he was all that! He and his working buddies went out for lunch that day. As they were leaving the parking lot, I could see him trying to figure out what was in front of him. It took him a minute to realize that that was me holding the sign. I think he was in utter shock! Haha. … (He didn’t leave me standing there! So I guess it worked!) 🙂
April 14, 2000: My mother and Aunt had stayed up all night to finish sewing my bridesmaid dresses and pressing my wedding gown. My mother was/is amazing! … It was a beautiful spring day! The flowers were in full bloom. The white clouds were in the beautiful blue skies (kind of all over – not so fluffy, but no matter). It was the day of my dreams. Of course, there were hiccups. The photographer arrived over an hour late, my bouquet and flowers never showed up (until the reception much later) and 
the beautiful glass blown cake top never came home with us. But the day was perfect anyhow!
and we loved more. 15 years later, and I am so grateful for the experiences we have gone through. I love him more than I ever imagined I could or would. He is a handsome, strong, patient, loving, forgiving, happy, talented, and all-around, in-and-out amazing man, son, father and husband! Sealed to him for eternity is a blessing. A blessing I am so grateful we held on to (and continue to hold on to and work for)! Happy Anniversary, my love! Here’s to the rest of time and all of eternity! *MWAH!*
working on eating right myself! Many years in the making and still learning! But I have found that I love to eat healthy. It gives me energy, my nails grow, my hair is shiny, I don’t have that sick feeling after I eat. One thing that I add to my everyday regimen is a HEALTHY shake that A- tastes good, B- gives me all the vitamins and energy I need and C- doesn’t include the gunk and caffeine that I don’t want in the first place! (Did you know? Most “healthy” powder supplements include caffeine of some sort. For me, this is always a turn-off.) So, my honey and I went on a quest to find a supplement powder that is not a supplement of fillers, filled
with GMOs, caffeine, soy, gluten, but instead full of natural, raw, organic plant goodness that is affordable.
and 
If I make it, my recipe looks like this:
)
