Thoughts that won't go away

As most of you know in October general conference last year they lowered the missionary age from 19 to 18 for boys, and 21 to 19 for girls. (For those of you who don’t know, twice a year the Latter-Day Saint church has a world wide broadcast via satellite, cable, internet, and radio, with talks by the General Presidencies and various members of the General Authorities in our church.)  As soon as I heard that announcement I immediately thought of one of my cousins who was 19 and I just knew that she’d be taking this announcement seriously.  I didn’t really have any reasons to think she would decide to up and send in her papers, but I just really felt like this announcement was important for her.  She started filling out her papers and preparing for her mission the following week.  3 months later we were sitting in her church building listening to her farewell talk.  She’s faithfully serving in the St. Louis mission now, and I could not be more proud of her.

I have another cousin who’s 17, and done just about every sport there is for girls to do in high school.  She’s smart, athletic, kind, and thoughtful and basically one of the most amazing people I know.  She recently was accepted to BYU-Hawaii, where she’s planning to attend after she graduates this summer.  I used to baby-sit her until she was old enough to not need a sitter anymore.  I helped in her kindergarten classroom once a week, then she was my maid of honor in my wedding.  I’ve watched her grow up and just blossom into a beautiful young woman.  I see how nice she is to other kids her age, and how good she is with her siblings.  She sends me texts that are so thoughtful, and it baffles me how in touch she is with other peoples emotions and I can’t believe she’s only 17. I already know that even though it’s a while off, she’s going to be an amazing mom.  I’m so excited for her and for everything she’s going to get to experience.

I also have lots of other cousins that are growing up and turning into these amazing girls, which I know are going to make such a difference in this world. 

Basically, it just amazing me how outstanding all these young women are.  I know I wasn’t anywhere close to where they all are now.  At 17 I wasn’t focused on college, even though I was attending.  At 19 I was too selfish to put my life on hold for a year and a half to go knock on doors to share the gospel.  I look at these girls, and I’m so proud to call them my family.  I am in awe of them all the time.  They have no idea how much I look up to them, and how proud of them I am.  I know I’m supposed to be the example because I’m the older cousin, but I don’t think anything I’ve done or could do would be more then what they’ve already done.  I look up to them so much and just hope I could be like them one day.  I’m so lucky to have girls like these around, and especially am just thinking about how lucky my *hopefully* future daughters are going to be to have all these amazing examples around.  Even though I am biased to my family, it’s not just my family that I’m in awe of.  I see the young men and young women in our ward and in our stake, and I hear stories of other youth and I’m amazed with them too.  The youth in the world these days are just stellar kids!  They’re dealing with stuff that I didn’t have to deal with as a teenager, and it wasn’t even that long ago.  They’re setting such an example for the younger kids, and I’m grateful for that considering I’ve yet to have kids, and they’re going to need an example more then ever.  I know they’re going to look up to my cousins just like I do.

Home, Sweet Home

Home, Sweet Home

Amazingly enough, that’s how I felt when I had the chance to go to Utah.  My aunt was blessing her beautiful baby and since my grandparents were headed up, they said I could tag a long. Man did I forget how long that drive was. It had been over 4 years since I’d moved home from Utah, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.  Of course I missed my family and friends who were still there, but I also just missed the state.  I did NOT miss the snow, but it’s just a different feeling there than here.  Less hostile maybe?  Anyway.  I was able to stay at my house and play with her adorable kids, which was a blast.  My parents decided to join the trek up which gave us even more people to play with.  The first day there I went with my parents to Scheels Sporting Goods, and my mom and I had too much fun.  They had these little photo booths set up all over the store and we sure took advantage of those.  She and I got ‘separated’ from my dad and eventually got the “where are you” phone call.  After playing around shopping at Scheels, and a couple other sporting stores, we had lunch at Tuscanos. Holy. Meat.  Here’s the deal with Tuscanos…. It’s a Brazilian restaurant where they walk around with different kinds of meat on skewers and carve it right onto your plate.  You get this little thing that’s panted in 3 sections, Green, Yellow, & Red.  Just like a stoplight, when it’s green the servers bring food, and when it’s flipped over to red, they pass by your table.  That is one of our ‘must eat’ places when we’re in Utah and boy did we EAT!!  Ate way too much, but I figure if I’m only getting it once every 4 years, I’m going to shove as much in as I possible can. Gross? Maybe. Delicious? Most definitely. 

Friday night I was able to see one of my BEST FRIENDS in the whole world who I hadn’t seen since I moved home.  She and I worked together at Bed Bath & Beyond when I lived up there, and we’ve been friends ever since.  I should clarify that they did stop scheduling us at the same time because we didn’t actually work when we were there at together. She and I went to the store just to look around to see how it’d changed, which was fun.  I was sad that there wasn’t anyone there that I knew.  We went to dinner together and it was so awesome to be able to sit and chat and catch up.  She’s one of those friends that no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen them, it feels like no time has passed at all.  I accidentally left my coat in her car and she had to bring it back to me, so it was like double prizes.

Saturday night my cousin Jennifer who also happens to be one of my close friends came over and had dinner with our family.  We got to spend the evening chatting and that was so great.  Jennifer and I grew up less then a mile from each other, and we’re only 10 months apart in age.  We used to have sleepovers every Friday night and watch T.G.I.F.  In high school we both partook in Ping-Pong Club activities, and hung out at church dances. I used to endure extra hours at church so I could go to Sunday School and Young Womens with her.  We did Joy School, Kindergarten, and Girl Scouts together.  We pretty much did everything together, and that trend seems to continue.  It was so nice to be able to just sit and talk to someone who’s in the same stage in their life as I am, and can relate to things I’m going through.  She’s cooler than me though cause she’s a teacher to a bunch of 4^th graders. I could never do that.

Sunday was the baby blessing which I didn’t actually get to attend.  Because of some of the circumstances surrounding this darling baby, people who were or had been sick were kindly asked to not attend as to not risk getting the baby sick.  I’d been dealing with what I just thought was allergies, but they didn’t clear up with allergy medication I figured it was probably a cold.  As bummed out as I was to not be at the blessing, I was able to watch some of my other cousins so their parents could attend without worrying about their kids. That night we did have a big family dinner, and my aunt was able to come up for dinner so at least I got to see her then. 

I did, of course, get my Pork Barbacoa Burrito from Café Rio and even found a few cute skirts at Walmart that could totally pass as DownEast skirts, but at like a fourth of the price.  One day we were at a emergency supply store and I saw an employee that looked very familiar and I got a little giddy.  Turns out I was right, and it was one of my favorite dining hall workers from when I was in Nauvoo.  My dad thought I was crazy, but I did get a picture with him, and did a little dance since I haven’t seen anyone from Nauvoo for a very long time.  I got to visit with my brother in law which was nice since we don’t get to see him very often since he lives in another state, but we sure wish we got to see him more often. And of course I got my hair done by my aunt who is an amazing cosmetologist, which I am so grateful for. I’ve gotten my hair botched too many times by people I don’t know.  I mostly don’t trust anyone else to touch my hair anymore.

I would have to say that this trip would be labeled ‘success’ for an over all grade.  It was the longest Kirk and I have been apart in 2 years which was a little tough, but I survived.  I was very excited to be home to my own bed though.

It's My Birthday

In January I celebrated my 25^th birthday. It happened to be on the 25^th of the month, making it my Golden Birthday. As soon as I woke up that morning, let me just tell you. I. Felt. Old.   It didn't help that the first thing that Kirk said to me when I woke up that morning was “Wow..you’re old now.  You should probably start using that lotion that goes around your eyes so you don’t get wrinkles.”  Geez. Thanks a lot.  I’d decided that since we still don’t have kids, I was going to have a party!  I haven’t had a party since I was a teenager, and if I’m going to feel old, I’d like to have my friends and family around me to comfort, I mean celebrate with me.  My cousin Holly designed my super cute invitations (you can check her out here) and my parents and little brothers helped with the finishing touches on the food.  They’d probably say they made all the food, since even though I worked all day I was still stupidly behind by the time the party was supposed to start.  I am so blessed to have so many family members and friends in the area that I was able to celebrate my night with.  Kirk got me a necklace that I (apparently)  pointed out in a black Friday add, and he also got me 25 gold balloons.  Those balloons were put to use for much entertainment after most people were gone.  Two of my cousins spend the night after party which was just too much fun.  We’d rented a movie, but I’d moved the couch (and clearly by I, I mean Kirk) to a different room and didn't want to move it back to watch the movie.  So I did what any normal person would do.  I blew up our gigantic air mattress for the girls, and dragged our mattress from our room and set them both up in front of the TV. 

That is how I spent my 25^th birthday, and it was the best birthday I could have possibly asked for.  Thank you so much to those of you who celebrated with me, in any way.