“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Ok world- I'm back to blogging. It's one of several awesome goals I have for this summer. I'm sure I'll be sharing some of my other goals soon as well. So to kick off my return to the blogging world (which includes following the blogs of my fabulous, beloved friends a little more closely), we're going to start by bringing back the Song of the Week!!! Be excited. Be very excited.
This week's song comes from an amazing country duo- Thompson Square. You don't even have to be a country fan to appreciate the awesomeness of this song though. The lyrics are beautiful, not to mention their amazing harmonies. It's called "Glass"- Enjoy!!!
(As a side note, these two singers are in fact, married to each other. It's totally not a requirement, but I've decided it would be major perk if my future husband could sing... and an even bigger perk if our voices could blend even close to this amazingly... Just sayin...)
So I'm just chillin' in Rexburg this fine Sunday evening. We just enjoyed a roommate dinner of Shepherd's Pie. We all contributed ingredients. I donated potatoes... again. I have a 20 pound bag, so I also made some fabulous mashed potatoes last Sunday for our pot-luck roommate dinner. Last week we had pot roast w/ veggies, mashed potatoes, garlic knots, lemonade, and caramel pecan brownies for dessert. We're pretty much Sunday dinner professionals. I shall use this post to introduce you to the Abby Lane Manor 102 Crew!
Beginning on the left is Jessica B.- 19 yrs. old. She's an art major from Upstate New York. She's very talented in the kitchen and her favorite color is lime green.
Next is Allison G.- 21 yrs. old. She's from Colorado Springs, CO. She's an English major- professional writing emphasis w/ clusters in French and Figure Drawing. She's got an awesome sense of personal style.
Erika W. is third from the left, 23 yrs. old. She's from Boise, ID studying elementary education. We're very kindred spirits and have lots of fun together. She writes great poetry and loves going to the temple as much as I do.
Camille E. is next, also 23 yrs. old. We are room-roommates. She's a University Studies major from Portland, OR. Her minors are in Humanities and Geography. She has some sweet cross stitch skills and is a joy to have around.
Last but not least, is Mary J.- 20 yrs. old, also from Upsate New York. She's engaged to Jessica's brother Mark and will be getting married in December. She's studying elementary education and has a great sense of humor.
I feel very blessed to live which such fabulous women!
As of yesterday I've officially been a returned missionary for two months! Is it a little nuts that I'm an RM? That label actually applies to me? Yes. But it's a good thing. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything! I loved it SO much, and even though it was so hard- it was so simple and wonderful. So how do I feel about my life right now?
-It's far more complicated than my mission. My focus is now divided in a hundred directions and I have to strive for balance instead of having one very clear
focus.
-I'm so incredibly blessed. I started working right after I got home. I have amazing friends, a wonderful ward, and an AWESOME family :)
-Dating is ridiculous. Not really... it's good... just exhausting and frustrating sometimes. At least I'm going on dates and having fun w/ it :) It's just so complicated.
-It's nice to be able to spend time working on healthy habits now that my time is a little more "mine". I bike to and from work almost every day. It's nice that I get to choose what I eat most of the time (not that I always make wise choices). I love doing yoga, random video workouts, and hiking when I get the chance. This morning- I fell in love w/ Zumba.
-Being a "grown up" is hard- dealing w/ medical bills, large purchases like my new laptop, and replanning out my schooling, etc. ... I get pretty overwhelmed by that stuff. I may be 23, but w/o my mom I might just explode w/ stress sometimes bein
g an "adult".
-I'm so grateful for the gospel. Life may be complicated, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and true and I love it.
This post isn't necessarily clever or well written
or possibly even interesting, but it's past time for me to start blogging again. So welcome back to Stardust and Sparkly Stuff my friends! Stay tuned for more interesting stuff!
I'm leaving on my mission tomorrow! I'll be in the Provo MTC for 2-3 weeks, and then will head for Texas! I'm so very happy :)
There's a chance I may post on here later today, but after that no new posts will appear on this particular blog for the next 18 months. (don't stop following it- I'll be back ;) )
It’s hard for me to believe it’s possible, but as I prepare to leave for 18 months, I have indeed become MORE sappy! I’m very driven by relationships and care deeply for so many people in my life. I have been blessed with many treasured friends and an incredible family- both immediate and extended. There is one person though, that I feel I should blog about this evening. If you couldn’t guess by the title… It’s my mom:
There is nobody in the whole world quite like my mother, and I love her so much! She’s an absolutely incredible woman full of light and love. She has so much patience and is such a strength to our family. Here’s a small sampling of why I love my mom and our awesome relationship!
*If we go out to eat, there’s about a 90% chance that we’ll order the exact same thing or even split an order.
*She’s probably the reason I listen to country music. (She listened to it in the car, when we ran errands together when I was little.) We have so much fun when we go to country concerts together! (Especially Collin Raye, Tracy Byrd, or Little Texas)
*She’s a great shopping companion.
*She’s always willing to help me with a sewing project, and loves me to help her with craft projects. We make a fabulous team.
*We love BYU football, and are more passionate Cougar fans than anyone else in our family.
*She’s always been a mom first, and a friend second- laying down the law when it was needed. I believe that to be a key reason why we can now be such great friends and have such a healthy relationship.
*She’s always been so respectful and supportive of my choices and my dreams.
*Her love is unconditional.
*She lives her testimony of the gospel and is an amazing example of faith and strength.
*She’s a great cook and a great source of practical kitchen advice. (And she always willing to email a recipe to me or answer cooking questions over the phone.)
*She’s one of my favoritest people to talk to in the whole wide world. Whether I want to chat about nonsense, vent about a boy, or talk through something serious, she’s always there with a willing ear and usually the right thing to say.
*She has mommy magic, and also she just might know everything.
*Having served a mission herself, she has been such a support and help as I prepare to serve. I honestly don’t know how I could have handled all the logistics of mission prep without her and her awesome support.
This list could go on for quite awhile, but since I need to get to bed I’ll end it here for now. Just know that my mom is a hero to me and represents so much of who I want to be. I told my brother earlier tonight, “If I can be half the mommy that Mommy is, I’ll be a good mommy. “ His response? “Truth.”
I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!
And nobody says it quite like Boyz II Men, so please enjoy:
I caught up on reading my friends’ blogs this afternoon, and am relieved to know I’m not the only one who didn’t post enough (or at all) over the holidays. Between finishing up school, enjoying the holidays, and preparing to leave on my mission… blogging just took a backseat for the last couple of months. I’m still alive though and doing fabulously! I have a goal of posting at least every other day until I leave on my mission. (more if I can manage it) In two weeks though, I enter the Missionary Training Center! Crazy huh? It’s coming so fast! I am incredibly excited!
So finishing up school was quite the adventure… especially the last 24 hours I spent Rexburg. The Thursday afternoon before I returned home to Utah (Friday afternoon), I had finally finished all my finals (which were all projects, no exams). Brandt came over to hang out with Emily, Katy, and me to say goodbyes and play for a little bit.
We were having a grand time, and taking lots of pics, when suddenly the power went out. We already had the camera out, so Brandt and I pretended to be scared.
My friend in the dorms said that there were tons of little freshman girls actually scared… screaming freshman girls in the dark… I’m really glad I wasn’t there. We were a little confused, but one of my roommates’ mom called the power company, and discovered that an entire substation had gone down. The power was out across several towns. So we spent the next while creating our own power outage fun. We tested our cell phones to see whose light was the brightest:
We frolicked in the icy parking lot and went for a drive:
Then Brandt went home, and it was just Emily and I hanging out. I realized I might be in for a cold night considering all my blankets and bedding were in Utah. Justin came up Tuesday night and took all my stuff back with him. All I had for bedding was my little bean pillow and my new pink snuggie… Emily took pity on me and we decided to drag our top mattresses into the living room for a power outage sleepover. We used Emily’s awesome comforter and slept warmly with our matching bean pillows. The power did come on in the middle of the night, but we had fun in the meantime. We enjoyed some fun girl talk, and of course Oreos!
Even if my schedule for White Glove cleaning and wrapping everything up in Rexburg got set back because of the power outage… It was a fun adventure. Thanks to my awesome roomies and friends for making it so fun!
After our temple session Friday night, my family and I set out to enjoy some quality time together in Rexburg. Our first initiative was to get some dinner at Craigo's- a Rexburg original pizza place. You can tell you're in Idaho when they serve pizza with potatoes on it :) I really like Craigo's and it was fun to share it with my family. After dinner we were all pretty tired, and went back to the hotel they were staying at for a little hot tubbing.
When we arrived the hot tub was fully occupied so my sister and I decided to try sitting on a ledge in the pool... it wasn't quite the same. It was however,, entirely entertaining. A father, two little daughters, and one little son (all probably age 10 and under) were playing in the pool. The father was trying deperately to keep his kids from bothering us or any other guests. The children were trying desperately to be normal, rowdy, little kids in the pool. We were splashed over and over and the little girls liked swimming over to us and explaining how they used to take swimming lessons and such. The boy was my favorite though, he was shouting across the pool to his dad trying to get some attention, and it sounded something like this:
"Dad! Dad! I'll swim for you! Dad, Dad! I'll swim for you! Hey Dad! Dad! I'll swim for you Dad! ....."like a monkey! or a soldier! I can swim like a monkey!.... or a soldier! ... or a monkey!... or a soldier!... Hey Dad! I'll swim for you!"
After half an hour or so, my mom eventually asked the current hot tub occupants if we could have a turn and they were very nice about it. The boys came out and joined us, and we enjoyed chatting and relaxing. The spot I sat in had like 5 awesomely powerful jets on my back, and it was SO nice.
Enjoying pizza and the hot tub~ (that's Amanda trying the "Spudalicious Pizza")
After the hot tub, we left the parents to get some shut eye and headed back to my apartment. The three of us had fun playing air hockey in my lounge. Amanda and I are pretty even in skill, and Justin can dominate both of us. The best part was while giggling uncontrollably, I scored 4 points for Justin (hitting the puck into my own goal) in rapid succession. After the fourth one, he and I both lost it and melted to the floor in hysteric laughter. It was fabulous :)
air hockey fun
We went back to the apartment to chill with my roomies. Brandt also came over to hang out with us and we mostly vegged a bit while Emily (roommate, not me) finished watching "Annie" on TV. Pickle headed back to the hotel, and the rest of us sat around being ridiculous, chatting, watching you tube, and letting Brandt entertain us. For a glimpse into our craziness, read some quotes of the evening in my sister's blog post.
chillin' at my apt.
This is one of the many ways Brandt entertained us (that's Amanda blogging in the background):
Amanda and I tried to be cool and watch "Brothers Grimm" while we had our sleepover in my living room. It didn't really work. We crashed too quickly. I was SO sleepy when it was time to wake up. The fam headed out around 9:30 Saturday morning which was far too soon. I already miss them! It made me feel very loved to have them all in Rexburg with me. I love them SOOOOOOOO much :)
