.I.Believe.That.Happiness.Is.Something.We.Create.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Working on me

The start of school always causes me to do a little self reflection. Sometimes I don't even want to think about all the things I need to work on, but with a new beginning, I can't help it. One of my favorite classes this semester is a class that teaches me how to teach writing to elementary school kids. I love to write, and I actually write every single day but my professor challenged us to follow 7 rules as we write.

Rule #1: Keep your hand (or your fingers) moving.
Rule #2: Lose control
Rule #3: Be specific
Rule #4: Don't think
Rule #5: Don't worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar
Rule #6: You are free to write the worst junk in America
Rule #7: Go for the jugular

I love my professor! Obviously, these are rules for just free writing, but if you follow them, they make such a difference. So, that's what I'm going to do with this post. I'm going write whatever is in my head. Sorry if it doesn't make sense, sorry if it's the worst junk in America, sorry if it's boring....feel free to stop reading if it is....

Happies:
-Believe it or not, I LOVE school this semester. My professors are great, the classes are actually interesting and useful. I'm pretty sure this is the first semester of my college career that I've enjoyed every single class...it's pretty great.
-There was a talk in sacrament meeting this past week that talked about studying the scriptures and I've been trying to get better at that. I usually just read them and I always get something out of the time that I spend doing that, but Sunday evening I was looking back through some of the things that I wrote down at church and I decided that I was really going to STUDY. So I started with a prayer and did my best, and it was AMAZING. That's all I have to say about that. :)
-My sister is getting married in 45 days! It's pretty exciting. Speaking of my sister, I saved a pretty good bit of money at Target today thanks to her.
-I get to babysit Caiden on Friday. I haven't seen him in so long. It actually hasn't been that long, but it feels like it's been forever. I miss little Caidy-butt.
-I have a really cute apartment thanks to Rebecca.
-Willie has been gone for a year...well, actually just 11 months, but that's close enough.
-There are more happies, I just can't think of them right now.

Crappies:
-I'm really bad at parking my car, and backing it up.
-On Monday's I'm in class for 9 hours.
-I can't find a good planner anywhere. I'm so lost without one.
-Thankfully, I don't have very many crappies.

So let's go back to the whole, Willie's almost been gone for a year thing. That's crazy! I can't believe how fast time has gone. He LOVES everything about what he is doing. He's still in his second area, he has been there FOR-EV-ER. I guess it's a good thing he likes it. His birthday is coming up and I have NO IDEA what to get him....no idea. Seriously, I got nothing. I think my favorite thing about this whole experience is reading his letters and e-mails and seeing how much he has changed and how much his testimony has grown. It's not very often that a person changes that drastically in such a short time, and I know that I definitely haven't. I have a lot to work on, lots of thing to improve. But that's what so great about this life, we have so many opportunities to change and grow and become better. We don't have to do it all in one day, or one year, it's just a constant tiny change from day to day. Trying to do better....that's all we have to do. It's pretty cool to think about.

That's all. If anyone made it this far, I apologize, because this probably was the worst junk in America. But I don't care :)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Carly's Bridal Shower


This past Saturday morning, Haley and I threw Carly a family bridal shower at our house. Before Aunt Judy left, she made sure that I would post pictures so that you could see them Laura, so this is for you. Enjoy :-)

The gift table with cute pictures of the future Mr. and Mrs.
The cake. I decorated this one, Haley decorated one that looked like a tux, but I accidentally deleted it and it takes forever to load pictures. But it was REALLY cute!
Grandmother Holmes and Aunt Jill
Rebecca and Carly
Carly and Grandmother Holmes, trying to figure out where in the world she was. :)
Grandmommy, Grandmother Holmes, Aunt Judy and Carly
Jenny, Aunt Judy, Carly and Grandmother Holmes
Grandmommy was trying to keep Campbell occupied...it was really funny.
Aunt Judy and Jill, during one of the games
The beautiful quilt from Jenny
My Aunt Angela got Carly cleaning supplies, an ironing board, and a cleaning uniform. haha.
Candle holders.
Cute wall art.
Can't remember who this was from...but it made Carly a little bit uncomfortable.
Silverware!
Vicki, gave Carly a bunch of chocolate...including syrup.

And now, it gets really embarrassing, thanks to Rebecca Hilton.
I think all of this speaks for itself.
It was hilarious to watch her open this.

It gets better...
More syrup.
Red Bull.
Yeah.
So funny.

The shower turned out great. We definitely have good pictures and good memories. Hope you enjoyed it....we wish you could have been here Laura!