a lifetime of me.

The wonderful life of me, Part One :)

It all began here on earth December 20, 1989 at the Portland Adventist Hospital. My parents, Brent Lyle and Sharon Marie Zumstein, were very proud to have their beautiful baby girl; their first child. A few days later they took me home to Woodland, Washington in a Christmas stocking! What a wonderful Christmas present I was! That year everyone was scrambling at the last minute to buy me Christmas presents. So I've been told. That’s because I wasn’t expected until after Christmas, in early January. But I suppose I just couldn’t wait any longer in my mother’s womb. I was ready to start my journey here on earth!

In these younger years I did many things. I was a very active little girl. When I was nine months old I gave my mother quite the fright by putting a giant garden spider in my mouth. I guess I thought it was a filbert nut. Apparently I liked those. Needless to say, when my mother saw me put the “nut” in my mouth, she came over to get it out so I wouldn’t choke. Much to her surprise, when she opened my mouth she saw eight legs moving about. Immediately she panicked and turned me parallel to the ground and started shaking the spider out of my mouth. I am proud to say nothing serious happened, and mom resorted in putting the spider in a jar to show everyone what I decided to stick in my mouth.

my view life

I find life to be one of the most amazing things possible in this world. It is so beautiful, messy, eventful, and has such a wonderful purpose to it. There is a reason for everything. It all fits together so perfectly. I'm in awe all the time when I see realize how something new fits into the Lord's plan/purpose for us being here. How it works with everything else. Anything and everything is so intertwined with all of it that it's so mind boggling!

One of the most important things for us to remember in this life is we are here on this earth to learn, grow, and then return to Heavenly Father. This is what I like to remember when looking at life as a whole. There is a purpose, a goal, and we need to try and achieve this. Remembering the reason we are here is essential for me to remember when I view life, because I can't really get a grasp of how I perceive the world without knowing what pushes it along. The reason is my backbone.

Life is meant to be fun. Yes, we have our hard times that are necessary, but overall Heavenly Father didn't send us down here to be miserable. He wanted us to form relationships with others, and to enjoy our life as we learn. I believe He wouldn't have given us all the resources we have to enjoy ourselves, unless He wanted us to use them. Besides, when you have fun learning and are enjoying it, then you really won't learn much. Yes, there are times to be serious, and we can't be constantly doing fun recreational activities, but make sure you aren't always completely absorbed in the tedious tasks in life. Enjoy the tasks at hand. Find creative ways to do something "boring." Keep life interesting. You'll be so much more happy and optimistic about life. Just like we love to see our loved ones happy, Heavenly Father cherishes our happiness.

Every person on this earth has a specific purpose they were sent to accomplish. It's easy to look throughout history and see the big characters who accomplished major feats in society. But each and every one of us has our own personal purposes to do that probably aren't as monumental. Joseph Smith's purpose in life was to restore the gospel of the church. But that is just as important as a mother's purpose to rear children in the gospel. She may never receive the fame that Joseph Smith has, but she still has a divine purpose to her life. Maybe there's a man out there whose purpose in life is to become a doctor and save millions of lives so those lives can finish fulfilling their purposes. I think the important thing for us to do is figure out why Heavenly Father sent us to the place He has, and while we strive to perfect ourselves, try the best we can to do what He wanted us to do for the people we have around us.

We can't go through this journey alone. We have people in our life for a reason. We are here to support each other in this journey and help whoever we can reach the ultimate goal. Life isn't going to be perfect. We aren't going to be happy or have fun all the time. We will have those trials to go through. They're essential to our growth. It is in these times that we need to rely on others. And when we notice another having a rough time, we need to support them. It's the way Heavenly Father meant it to be. He's designed it this way.

My list could probably go on and on if I keep thinking about it, but these few topics right here are what I feel are most important when I look at life. They are what I feel most passionate about when I view life as a whole. They all play a part in the grand scheme of things, and are unbelievably important to remember. Never forget...

life is a beautiful thing.

life goals/future plans

I like to think of my life goals as a bucket list. Yes, things I would love to accomplish before I "kick the bucket." And my future goals easily fit into this bucket list because they are plans I have before I kick it. Woah! Look at that! They work so well with each other! I love it.
Well, I have come up with a list of my top 25 most important bucket list goals/plans. They are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Marry in the temple
2. Raise a family with the man I love in the gospel
3. Graduate from college
4. Read the top 50 greatest books
5. Visit all 50 states in the US
6. Own a home
7. Stay debt free from everything except higher education and a home
8. Pay those debts off as quickly as possible
9. To be sealed to my family (parents and siblings) in the temple
10. Never forget charity, give service at all oportunities
11. Travel to all the church history sites
12. Be part of a society on the BYU-Idaho campus
13. Graduate from college with at least a 3.5 GPA (preferably higher)
14. Don't get absorbed in finances & work hard--everything will fall into the right place
15. Be able to say I didn't hold back in life
16. Put everyone else before me
17. Travel to a foreign country
18. Put money into memories/helping not materials
19. If I pursue a career, do something that benefits/helps other people
20. Run a marathon
21. Be there for my children always
22. Never go to bed angry at my husband
23. Do at least one extreme sport (aka: skydiving, parasailing, etc.)
24. Get all the family history work I can, done so I can one day be with those people again
25. Stay healthy

I just want to live life to the fullest I can. To learn what I need to in this life and stay worthy to return to my Heavenly Father. All the while enjoying it the best I can. Life's too short to worry all the time.



(photograph I took of the Portland, OR temple and scriptures May 2009)

Welcome!

Hello! This blog has a reason it's being created. Yes, shocker I know. I am creating a "Book of Remembrance" about anything and everything containing my life and the life of my ancestors. I want to be able to remember this information when I'm old and my memory runs away from me. And so my children can have something to go look at in an easy format. Something in their "technilogical lingo." But who knows, by the time they're old enough maybe blogging will be ancient and they'll have some new, hip way of communicating to the world (aside from social networks).

To all you who read this, thank you and enjoy getting to know me and my family history! :)