One year

I have only one word.

UNBELIEVABLE.

It has been ONE YEAR since Willie left for Utah. I remember being in the airport [being quite dramatic] thinking that I would never be able to make it 2 whole years. It feels like I've blinked a couple of times and it's half way over. Unbelievable. Time goes so quickly.

Since I'm on the subject of Willie, I'll just give a quick update :)

They just had transfers, but he still didn't get moved. He's staying in the West Hills ward, where he has been since February! He loves the ward, he loves his companions, he loves the people that he's teaching, he loves his mission president, and he LOVES serving.

Do you have qualities about yourself that bug you? Does that even make sense? I am constantly comparing myself to other people and it drives me INSANE...but I still do it. I make a conscience effort to stop doing it, but I just can't help myself sometimes. The whole point of this, is that I have seen Willie change through letters, like you wouldn't even believe. He has grown so much in just a short year. So I look at the difference in him, and then I look at myself and I feel like I'm the same person that I was a year ago. That's not a very good thing. I wasn't a bad person a year ago...my point is that I don't feel like I've made any noticeable progress, and it's a little frustrating. I'm sure I have. I have been through experiences that I couldn't have gone through without changing and becoming a little stronger. I think my main problem here, is that I'm looking at myself compared to others. I think if I really took some time [and took everyone else out of the equation] and thought about all that's happened in the past year, and who I was, and who I am now, I would see some differences.

All I know for sure, is I still have a lot of work to do. I supposed it's a good thing I have another year to focus on just me.

Bored.

I'm bored. So I'll just write about whatever come to my head.

I made it through the first two weeks of school! I still like all my classes and professors.

I heard a really funny/scary story yesterday about a girl (who happened to be on crutches) getting hit by a SUV. My roommate witnessed it first hand. I know that shouldn't be funny, maybe it's just the way Becca tells it.

I get to go HOME for the long weekend and I'm so excited. I don't know why, I was just home last weekend...I'm just a homebody.

Yesterday was Willie's birthday! It was really weird, but we still celebrated :) Hopefully he had a really good day.

I am about to start filling out the application for my yearlong internship/student teaching. I can't believe I'm old enough to be doing that. It's so weird. It seems like I JUST graduated high school, and I only have a little over a year of college left. So, so weird.

A few months ago, I started making a list of 100 goals for my life. I know that sounds kind of funny, but I read it in a book and it sounded like a good idea, so I've been doing that. It's so much harder than you would think. I've finally made it to around 80, and I'm all out of ideas. But I'll probably post some of those when I finish. It's kind of funny what you can think of when you have to come up with so many.

The whole reason I'm bored is because I'm waiting on Carly, so that we can go to the gym (because she's getting married in a month...we usually wait until the last minute...this is no exception :). But she just called, so I've got to go.

:)

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 :)

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!

Caiden :)

Caiden is getting so big. It's crazy how fast he is growing! These are some pictures that I took of him a few days ago, which are pretty cute if I do say so myself :-).

My poor little car...

What a sad day...at least no one was hurt! Except for my little car, bless it's heart.

Count your many blessings...

What a weekend. Isn't it funny how you don't really realize how blessed you truly are until something not so good happens. Well, that's what happened this weekend for me....

Friday: I worked and rode down to the temple with Brandon. We got there early so we went to the bookstore, and I bought two books that I'm really excited to read. The temple was great as always. So, that was a great day.

Saturday: I woke up early for the day of service. I had to give the sisters and elders a ride and after being lost in Concord for about 30 minutes, we finally made it there. We worked hard to clean up school grounds and it was actually a lot of fun. Later that day we got to go back to Columbia to hear Elder Anderson speak. I drove down with Rebecca, and Brandon and that was fun all on it's own. :) We listened to Elder Anderson speak and it was amazing. It's so neat to see an apostle in such a personal setting and really get to see his personality. He was so funny! So that was amazing...we even got to shake his hand and talk with him for about 5 seconds each...so cool! THEN....on the way home (long story short) I got in a wreck :( It was so scary. I've never gotten a ticket, or even been pulled over...so much for that. So, not surprisingly, I had no idea what to do. Thank goodness for my friends. Brandon Pace is a lifesaver! He was sitting right behind me and I guess he saw it coming and he grabbed my shoulders and kept me from hitting the airbag. He went and checked on the guy we hit (who was fine...and very nice), he somehow made me stop crying, he made me laugh a couple times, he talked to the cops and firefighters and rescue people, he talked to the guy in the gas station where we had to leave my car, he talked to my parents. He did everything. Thank goodness he was with me. And Donald gave us all a ride back to Charlotte...he's the man. So everything turned out fine. No one was hurt!! We were all very blessed.

Sunday: We had ward conference and it was so good. I love having all the Stake leaders come, they are awesome. Bishop was conducting sacrament meeting and announced to everyone about my wreck which was rather embarrassing. :) All of the talks and lessons were really great! Jenny taught Relief Society and it was amazing...she said exactly what I need to hear. I love her! After church Jake took me home (thanks Jake!) and as soon as I got there I got a call from my Grandpa who said he had picked up my car earlier and was coming through Charlotte on his way home...so I got to come home and see my family! :)

Like I said...what a weekend.

After everything that happened I feel overwhelmingly blessed. I'm thankful for:

-Being safe

-My family

-Brandon

-Rebecca

-Jay

-Heather

-Tyra

-Jamie

-Donald

-Carly

-Jake

-The guy we hit...he was probably the nicest person I've met in a long time.

-All of the firefighters and rescue people were great!

-My parents!!

-hugs

-hearing an apostle!

-being able to go to the temple

-ward conference

-My Grandpa

-the list goes on and on and on...

-I am sooooooo blessed-