WOW. What a Lesson.

WEll, this month has been my lesson learning month officially.
-lost Mandy Johnson
-lost my Grandma Polve
-lost my dog, Mya
-Colten is in Ghana
-my closest girlfriends are all in Provo now.

So, today when i went to get in my bed and cry some more, it hit me. like a ton of bricks. i started listing all the things wrong with this month when all of a sudden i realized, i can list, and relist, and relist, forever. and i could forever give up my power to these trials. I watched a movie called Penelope, and you gotta watch it if you haven't. but at the end, a little boy sums up the moral of the story in a sentence "It's not the curse, it's the power you give the curse" so relating that to my life, i've learned this month that i can take the trial that comes to me in a day, and i can grieve, (spelled wrong?) and then, i can move on. or even better, because i have the gospel, i can take each trial and remind myself that my Heavenly Father knows exactly what he is doing. and that if all this will come in one month, He must know that I can handle it. and I can. I've never felt so strongly the renewed strength from my Father in Heaven as I do today. Another movie, (ya i work at a movie theater) Kung Fu Panda, really did have a good message too, that the secret of life is the power that you believe you have within. and i truly believe that each of us has a stronger power than we know. and then add on the power and strength that we get from our Father in Heaven, WOW. I'm so thankful for August, I'm thankful that my Heavenly Father believed in me enough to send me these trials, cuz i'm gonna take em, and i'm gonna learn from them, and humble myself. I'm thankful for the strength He has given me. so here i go, another day, maybe some more "trials" that really are "trails" leading us onto a higher way of life.

T- THE

R- RIGHT

I- INTERPRETATION

A- ALWAYS

L-LEADS TO LEARNING

S- SOMETHING SPECIAL

Last time...

For the past few days i keep thinking, this is the last time colten and i will do this or that, all the time. and then i think well, at least for two years, if everything works out. And it's scary, everything changing, and him leaving, and so i thought oh we have to do really fun stuff right before he leaves, we can't waste time. Well, here's what we did, everyday the past few days, we've just visited each other's houses, talked about good times, talked about the future, and laughed and cried. And ya know what? it's been better than it ever could have been. Most would think that it's gonna be just too heartbreaking those last ten minutes you get to really be with them, well i just did it, and honestly we laughed and cried up until i drove away. But i'm gonna type this because maybe i'll come back to this blog, and it will help me remember. He is my best friend. In the whole world. No one has ever been closer, and I've never cared about someone so much. No one is as silly as him, or can make me laugh the way he does. And i told him, not to think of me as a girlfriend impatiently awaiting his return, but as his best friend, who will always be there every step of the way. And so I will. And the next few years of my life, and gonna be selfish (meaning take advantage of the time i'm not married) and focus on growing as an individual and becoming the best sammy i can be. One time at girls camp we had to pretend we were writing on gold plates and we had to write out a goal. and a year later we dug them up and read what we wrote. My goal (which sadly i had forgotten) was simply to "be the best Sammy Bramall i can be" so that is my goal still today. and for the next few years. Wish me luck, cuz this will suck, but i'm ready to do it, as cinderelly says, "there's really nothing to it" and i'm gonna have a great two years.

My First Day of School!

yay. today is my first day back at dixie state. i would normally probably be excited but since colten hasn't left yet, it just sucks. He leaves on Thursday but the last time i'll see him is on wednesday. it's gonna be so hard. thursday i have classes, but i really dont wanna go till next week because i dont want to sit there and hold in the tears. IDK, i'm not usually a cryer but with this subject there's no way i could hold it in. Basically, it is not gonna be a fun week, but i'll get through this. i'll be fine, just gotta keep going. (what is funny, kinda ironic, last night at work some kids best friend's moms, if that made sense, stopped me and asked for my number so that she could have him (her son's best friend) call me for a date. She said i seemed nice and cute so ya. that kid texted me later and he seems nice. he said he was way embarrassed that she did that but oh well.) (just kinda funny that i meet someone the week colten leaves. this is gonna be a rough 2 years.)

just in case...

just in case there wasn't enough change going on, they(meaning my dad and his counselors) had to change our bishopric too. dont worry, my favorite bishop of my life Jody Rich, is now not my bishop. its ok because im confident enough with myself to be a true super senior and visit him at the high school occasionally, which i will seriously do. but, i will miss him so much. I've never known a person to love people as much as he does. He truly shows the best example of charity (the best example that can come from all of us imperfect people, because of course Christ was the perfect example) There have been times that he made me feel like such a great person, and I see him open others eyes all the time to their true potential. Anyway, he is just an awesome guy, but i'm excited to get to know our new bishop, even though its another change from what my life used to be.

so much change.

there are so many things changing. i feel like my life is reaching the top of one set of stairs, and im just about to start a whole new set of huge, long, winding stairs, but i'm ready for the climb. I'm the type of person that just puts off preparing emotionally for these big changes, and so i think that the week of August 24th- August 30th is gonna hit me pretty hard. Colten leaves that thursday, i say goodbye to him that wednesday, and i start school that tuesday. I can't wait to start my life, but at the same time i kinda wanna take these last few steps slowly, before i start a bigger climb. I'm ready for what lies ahead, and i just have to remember to keep doing the simple things that really matter, like reading my scriptures (haven't been doin so good lately), praying (that is one thing i never forget to do) and just being active in the church i love. Things are hard right now, but i just have to keep reminding myself that it's all gonna be worth it in the end, and that the trials we face in this life are only really so small in the big scheme of things. I can do this, and I will.

SisterHood of the Traveling Pants

Since i work at the theater, and i do see more movies than most people, here is my review for Sisterhood of the Traveling pants 2. i liked it a lot, the beginning had a jumpy story and i found myself trying to string all the different parts together to make sense, but towards the end the movie flowed really well.

The last Blessed Kids Show

wow. so, Stouts, a lovely furniture store gaveout 150 tickets, supposedly which is what we told em to do. they are awesome and i sincerely hope that this deal helped out their business, however, somehow, we got 189 tickets today. thank goodness for a bigger theater that we could shove everyone in. The last show did go better today, but, let me just give you some details.

1) out of the first three moms, One mother, (with her many children running around her and one on her hip) possibly not having a good day, came to the podium. (that is the place i stand to take tickets) now, sidenote- every kids show we have been kind enough to let a few people in without tickets. so today, this mother did not have any because when stouts told her they did not have any tickets, she said ok, came to the theater, and said well, you guys never take the tickets anyway so i figured i wouldn't need them. well, oh no you did not just say that to me honey. (that was the thought going through my head, and my fellow manager lisa's head) and we kindly explained that we do take them, and they are supposed to be always if they haven't been then sorry. then we told her she should be ok, we let her in. and her many children. then she said, "sorry i wasn't trying to be snotty its just that..." yeah honey, now that we gave ya what ya wanted. sheesh.

2) we have like 30 or 40 booster seats, every kids show a lot have been used, but they are only for really small children anyway so never in the history of the theater have all been used up. well folks today we made history. the stack was gone 15 minutes before the show even started. people honestly asked me if we had any extra, i kindly said no, but in my head im thinking(are you crazy! we never have this many children at the theater on our busiest nights! we shouldn't even be out now! i know its a kids show but oh my heck!)

this is actually an eyewitness of one of the beloved booster seats. Thank you to the many of you who left them if you happened to attend this show. we appreciate the extra work.:)

3) our biggest theater, the one that seats like 275 or something, is FULL. Not ONE SEAT LEFT. EVERY SEAT GONE TO SOME LITTLE CHILD.

4)if you have ever worked in a theater, you may have already thought of this detail, but for those who haven't, let me give you an idea of what we are dealing with regarding CLEANING. when a theater is filled with adults, for maybe a show like pirates of the caribbean or something, every row is filled with popcorn, wrappers, boxes, trays, and anything you can think of. a lot of which we dont even sell, but dont worry, we clean it up. OK, so picture that in your head, now, picture a child in every seat, for just Horton Hears a Who, and picture how little children eat, especially when they are focused more on the movie than where their popcorn just fell because it didn't make it into their mouth. Ok, picture hundreds of kiddie trays, value popcorns, kid icees, value drinks, even the famous large combos, scattered all around. I know the mothers care, but if i were a mom with 5 kids under the age of ten, i probably would tell my kids to leave it too. Now, here is what it looks like:

thanks for letting your child spill then walk all over the popcorn and smush it further into the carpet. well sweep it.

good thing we offer large combos.

this would be a bag of something we did not provide. dont worry well throw it away for you.

this would be the stairway. we love sweeping stairs. its the funnest.

this would be one of the garbages we filled up.

sorry about the blurryness of some of the photos. but this here would be one of the many value popcorns, and two of the many value drinks.

and there we go. get to work. we love cleaning up. really its awesome. i love it about as much as i do when i step on a prickly plant. or a rock. or a nail. i really love it.

5)next detail, before the movie started, whoever you were lady that drove a golden i think honda van, i saw you park in the handicapped parking. your children were not handicapped. ma'am i know you were late, but that is just rude. (she maybe didnt think we would notice since all our doors are windows, next to other windows, and handicapped spots are on the front row) plus miss, you pulled into it at like 50 mph someones gonna see ya. Rude.

6) Oh also, i got yelled at because people were saving seats. Sorry to the person who yelled at me, but there were only like six seats being saved. get over it.

Thats all i have. if i had anymore, i probably would have quit my job today.. not really, but i would have come closer. Thank goodness, these Blessed,Lovely, Awesome, Fun, FREE KIDs SHOWS are OVER!

Thanks again, and ill probably see ya next summer.

Asking for Miracles

A couple in my ward have a brand new baby in the hospital about to undergo surgery. This new little infant may need to have a pacemaker put in. Her health has been touch n go here an there for the past few weeks but everyone continues to pray for her and her family. As i sat and listened in testimony meeting to the testimony of her father, he said that miracles are happening all the time. It got me thinking, in our lives, when we encounter any struggle, whether it be a helpless sick baby, or even just something simple, often we find ourselves asking God for a miracle. And today i realized that there are millions of people who ask for miracles every single day. I can't help but be humbled by that, because i know that he hears every prayer, and that every single day, he does perform miracles. In families everywhere across the globe he proves his love. Yet sometimes i'm selfish enough to think that He isn't listening, or that He just doesn't care. But in my heart i know that He loves me, just as much as he loves every single person on this earth, all of which at some point in their life, if they look for His hand, they will see that he has given them a miracle. Sometimes even without asking.