UPdate

Hey all you beautiful people, Leah here.

I'm sorry I have been lacking on helping with LLLTD. :( But, today I have decided that I am going to focus all my energy on this project. Because I know that as soon as we all start working more on this, we really can make a difference.

My passion for this cause has been recently been relit. I know that with all of your help, we can all make a difference in this world, I mean a REAL difference. Effect people, changes lives. I believe we can. And this will be possible if you all believe it too. :)

And I, Leah am here to help you through any problem you may have. I myself have dealt with cutting, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and also illnesses. So I can help you with anything, can help UPlift you. Which is why they title of this is UPdate. :)


We love you all! And are here for you anytime.
Thank you for supporting us.
Leah <3
LLLTD

Determined

Well it's the final letter. I've actually really enjoyed writing these blogs. But now you'll probably hear less from me and more from the other girls (we'll hope!) lol

Okay Determined: Well the definition is.....

deciding or controlling something's outcome or nature.

To me determination means You've absolutely come to a decision about your outcome and you will stop at nothing to complete it. Determination is a passion, its a goal and it's being completely dedicated.

It takes determination to live, it takes determination to love (especially when it comes to your enemies) It takes determination to laugh (through the hard times) It takes determination to TACKLE YOUR PROBLEMS!

Determination is key. It's the glue that helps us get through life.

Sometimes it's hard to be determined on our own we need other people to feed us that determination.

I know when I was going through college and thought I would fail out, I was ready to give up. Many people around me helped me to stay determined. And thats what LLLTD is here for. We want to help you stay determined through times when you dont think you can.

Determination speaks mostly for itself so this is a rather short blog. But stay determined so you can Live, Love, Laugh, and Tackle! ;)

-Lynnea

T time! -TACKLE

Okay I know there are only 5 letters to LLLTD But we're almost done! T is for Tackle (Tackle your problems.

We chose tackle because thats really what we do in life, we tackle our problems sometimes one by one and other times all at once.

Definition of Tackle is: undertake: accept as a challenge; "I'll tackle this difficult task" a sports definition goes further in the explanation of this word: seize and throw down an opponent player, who usually carries the ball.

What does all of that have to do with Life? In life we are met with obstacles (I know and here we were all thinking that life comes easy...just kidding) We have the choice to be beaten by the obstacle, or to take it down! Obstacles are challenges, whether it be a decision in a job, or in what college you will attend, maybe it's even deciding what clothes you are going to wear today. Or maybe you obstacle is something huge. Perhaps you are deciding whether or not to cheat on a test, maybe you are a primary care-giver (many young people are given that task today due to the health of their parents), maybe you have to decided whether or not to pull the plug as family member lay dying in a hospital. Maybe your decision is whether or not to stand up to a family member who keeps bringing you down. The possibilities to obstacles are endless. Think of some of your own and all the decisions you have to make.

To tackle means to look at those obstacles, and take them down! Don't them rule you over or take you down but TACKLE them. Think over a sport, when the opposing team is keeping you from the ball is your first instinct to run scared or to tackle them? Well if you run scared you will have regrets, but if you tackle them you could win!

Heres another life experience example from me: When I was 15 years old my father was dying of Leukemia. My mother had broken her arm (in half) so she couldn't take care of my dad or of me. So at age 15, the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school I became the adult. I cared for both of my parents, but also had to take care of myself because I didnt want to get sick. (I was taking care of a dying man whose immune system was crap, if I got sick from lack of rest he would have gotten sick as well) So I did everything I could. I would wake up, take care of dad, fix food and care for mom, run to the store down the road for something (this was my time to myself as well as an errand), then I'd come back, care for dad, care for mom, make dinner, get dad ready for bed, help mom do something around the house, and go to sleep (My bed time was around 9:30 or 10.) But this left no time for house cleaning. Our house was becoming a mess but it's not something I could help. I was 15 and taking care of my sick parents! A Typical day with my dad was: Wake up, make sure he was alright, empty out his pee bottles, clean them, return them to his bedside, If he had to do something else in the bathroom I would have to literally pick him up out of bed and take him to the bathroom, then wait til he was done and pick him up off the toilet. (My father was 275 pounds and 6'5" to my 135 5'4" body type) Then I would have to check his platelets and rub his feet. Most days I would have to change his sheets and do laundry, it was a full time job (I'm not complaining I dont regret a day that I helped my father those are moments that I'll cherish. I'm just simply telling you this so you know what I experienced.) Well as tiem went on the house became a mess. And long story short my family got a visit from my fathers sister. When she saw the house she was appalled. We tried to tell her that I was doing what I could to keep everything together but she wouldnt listen. She threatened to call social services and have me taken from my parents. (Bare in mind I'm all they had to help them at this point) So I made a decision that I would not let her (the obstacle) beat us. So for 4 days straight I went without sleep. I cleaned the entire house, and it was shining and spotless, and I was still able to care for my parents (day time was them, night time was cleaning) I mean I didn't stop for 4 days, she came back to check on the house and dropped her threat. Although she didnt get to talk to me at all while she was here, I slept the whole time. :)

I said all that to say that with a positive attitude and (determination...which we will talk about next) you can tackle the issues in life. Just get at them and beat those little suckers with a stick. (In my case my weapon of choice is a rubber chicken because it's funnier and more random that way)

So to bring it all together: If you live your life, love everyone, laugh at situations, then you can tackle your problems and you've got 5 ladies cheering you on the whole time! :)

Until determination, you beat those problems with a rubber chicken okay?! ;)

-Lynnea

Laugh

Well here we are at the last L. Laugh.

We all know what laughter is. Everyone has a different laugh. Did you know that your laugh is beautiful, it shows personality. But before we talk about that lets find that definition of Laugh.

Laughter is an audible expression or the appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling or other stimuli. It is in most cases a very pleasant sensation.

Another thing about Laughter is that it can be a form of coping. Some of us may have experienced being in pain or emotionally hurt and instead of crying we find something to laugh about. I'm like that. Whenever something makes me sad or uncomfortable I say a joke or something to make myself laugh.

Everyone has a different laugh. Some laughs are loud and boomy, others are sneaky, some people snort, and there are many other forms of laughter. It's contagious just like a smile. It's absolutely beautiful because no matter your laugh it shows a happiness that may otherwise before foreign or invisable.

"Laugh" is part of LLLTD because When you live and love, it is important to also laugh. Living and loving bring happiness but laughter SHOWS it.

So laugh through the pain and heartache in your life, it might be tough but find something to laugh about. Think of a funny past memory.

As I stated above my coping mechanism in life is laughter (and all of my friends will testify to that because sometimes I laugh at awkward moments just so I wont cry and it used to really annoy them before they got used to it. I dont suggest taking laughter to my extreme) Anyway when I was 15 my father died. But in my family I'm known as the strong one. I was holding up my mother, and felt like I needed to be strong for the rest of my family. So my best friend in HS came and met my "hot" cousin. And she made a comment about how he looked like a friend of hers that she liked so she could never be with him so we should cover him in mud. And I'm not gonna lie. I laughed. and it felt good to laugh. My cousins dad heard me though and got mad. He said that the funeral of his brother was no place to laugh.

He was probably right, but that was also the funeral of my father and I was hurting...I needed to laugh.

So live your life, love everyone, laugh no matter what...and then in the next blog from me we'll talk about the T.

"Dont you give up now the sun will keep on shining, you gotta face the clouds to find the silver lining." -Kutless

Laugh and make that beautiful sound because your laughter might brighten your day and even someone else's. - Lynnea

Love

Hey everyone,

Lynnea here again! Hopefully we'll get the other girls involved in blogging on here soon. But until then I wanted to do another entry and talk about another point in LLLTD: Love. Below are some definitions of love.

1. a strong positive emotion of regard and affection;
2. any object of warm affection or devotion;
3. have a great affection or liking for;

Love is a strong and positive emotion of regard and affection. I like that definition. A strong and positive emotion. Thats exactly what LLLTD is trying to express. You know the love stories that most of us have grown up hearing, cinderella, beauty and the beast, and add to that stories like The Princess Bride, Penelope, Stardust, Enchanted, and Ella Enchanted, stories of love, albeit fairytale love they are stories of true love. a strong and positive emotion. An emotion that saves people from a difficult time. Take the Princess bride: Nothing could happen to Westley that could forever keep him from his true love. Not even DEATH. Its a positive emotion that brings happiness into your life, even if your trying to overcome a spell that was put on you (Ella Enchanted)

Love is devotion! Stardust is a good example of that. Tristan wants to prove his devotion to Victoria so he starts on a journey to find the star that he saw fall. He finds it and the star is a woman!! His devotion is to get that star back to Victoria by her birthday to prove his love. But in this journey he finds his true love in Yvaine. He is then devoted to keeping her alive. Love is devotion.

Finally, Love means having great affection or liking for. This to me means more than romantic love. In friends, especially good friends. A love like this is found in friendships like on the movies Little Women (sisters), Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants, Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, Babysitters Club, and many others. The truest friendships, the ones that have great affection and liking for the other friend.

There are several different kinds of love. But love can keep a person going through the hardest of times.

So Love like you have never loved before and if you dont feel loved, know that the girls in LLLTD and I all love you, every single one of you. We love you very much. Because it is you that we care for. We want to see you smile, we like you! We are affectionate toward you because we are greatly effected by you! We are positive that if you keep positive, love yourself and love others that you can get through the difficult time. and we are DEVOTED to helping you in anyway that we can.

So my lovelies, love like crazy...and Live your life like you've never lived before.

-Lynnea