Oh How the Years Go By!

My best friend Jill got her mission call last night. She's going to the Slovenia Croatia Mission, speaking Croatian. She reports to the Provo Missionary Training Center May 3rd. She is so excited to serve the people there! Jill is leaving in 4 weeks and 4 days. It's so soon!

As for me, well, it hit me once again how fast we're growing up, and how everything is changing. I called my parents to tell them to good news and started sobbing. I really am excited for her. Really, I couldn't walk fast enough to get home from my class. There were so many wonderful people there to help her celebrate. It was wonderful! I'm happy for her, and sad for me. Jill was the one that's been there for me through everything. She was there to cry and laugh with me when all of our missionaries left, when Amie got married, when I had boy troubles, when I had roommate issues, when Amie had her baby. Now Jill's got her mission call, and is going half-way around the world. Who's going to be here for me now, to laugh and cry with me? Who am I going to say "Oh Jill!" too? When will I get my Jill hugs? I know the Lord has called her to Croatia because the people there need her. Yes, they need her even more than I do. I just have to trust that He will provide someone for me to fill that void that I have already begun to feel.

While I was doing my homework today, an Amy Grant song came on my iPod. As I'm sure you've been able to tell, music touches me deeply and expresses the things that I quite often cannot put into words. This song was no different:

In our times of trouble
We only had ourselves
Nobody else
No one there to save us
We had to save ourselves
And when the storms came through
They found me and you
Back to back together
And when the sun would shine
It was yours and mine
Yours and mine forever

There were times we stumbled
They thought they had us down
But we came around
How we rolled and rambled
We got lost and we got found
Now we’re back on solid ground
We took everything
All our times would bring
In this world of dangers
’Cause when your heart is strong
You know you’re not alone
In this world of strangers

And if we lose our way
Any night or day
Well we’ll always be
Where we should be
I’m there for you
And I know you’re there for me

And oh how the years go by

And oh how the love brings tears to my eyes

All through the changes the soul never dies

We fight, we laugh, we cry

As the years go by

As the years go by.

I love you Jill! Good luck, my love!

"When you have a baby, love is automatic..." ~Marie Osmond

Welcome Samuel Phillip!
My best friend Amie had her baby on Sunday (March 26). Little Samuel Phillip was born at 2:20, 7 lbs and some ounces. Ten tiny fingers, ten little toes, two adorable blue eyes, two perfect ears, a nose, a mouth and blonde-ish hair. I found out yesterday at around 2. I couldn’t contain my excitement, and could barely walk around. I told everyone I saw. I had already taken off work for a group meeting that ended up being cancelled. So, I grabbed some flowers and a balloon, and ran home to change. I called Jared and asked him when would be a good time to come visit, and he said I could come right then. You certainly don’t have to tell me twice! So, Alicia and I went to visit them for a few minutes. I think we were the first and only friends to come by. Of course both of their families had been in and out. Amie was excited to see us. She kept saying, “I knew you would come!” Amie looked tired, but perfectly content with the world. Jared couldn’t wipe the grin off his face, and who could blame him? He now has not only a beautiful wife, but an adorable, healthy son! Amie took little Samuel out of his little crib, and let us each hold him for a few minutes. Alicia held him for maybe ten minutes, and then I got to hold him for about twenty minutes. Amie’s mom came while we were there, and Alicia had to leave, but I stayed for a while. He is an adorable, perfect, healthy little bundle of joy, and I fell in love with him the moment I saw him! I hope to have pictures soon. We took a camera, but just didn’t have time. I stayed for a little over an hour, and then left because Samuel was hungry. I’m going to visit them later this week, just to check on Amie and see how they’re adjusting to home life. She’s such a cute little mother! Jared is, of course, the most adorable dad. He’s so great with Samuel, just naturally. It made me giggle when I was leaving and Jared was holding Samuel, and he said, “Tell Mallory good-bye!” I thought it was adorable! What a joy and little miracle he is! It’s so miraculous to me. Samuel is here, and he and Amie are safe and sound. All is right in the world!

Fun baby quotes that I love:
"Babies are never common. Each one is a miracle." ~Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables

"Ten fingers, ten toes. He's laughter and teardrops, so small and brand new. And amazingly angelic, he's sent to bless you! He's one special Baby, the best of life's treasure. And will grant and bless you many hours of great pleasure."
~Anonymous

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."
~ Vincent van Gogh

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for"
~ Anonymous

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy."
~ James Matthew Barrie

Team Bangarang! Less Flab Mo*Ab!

I just got back from an awesome weekend in Moab. We left Friday around 1 pm and got down to Moab around 5. We checked into our campsite and went to eat dinner while we waited for everyone else (and all of our luggage) to get there. We finally got all set up around 8, and then we all hung out for a couple of hours. Sixteen people in our group went down to run the half marathon (13.1 miles!), and the rest of us were there to support them and get a much needed break away from Provo! It was a blast! We had a campfire, ate s’mores, played cards, and then went to bed. I’d like to say that we were all warm and cozy in our tents, but, well, we were camping in a desert in March! We were all wide awake by about 7, and we saw the runners off and then took down camp.

We arrived at the finish line around 10:30 and waited for everyone to come in. Our first team member to come in was Spencer at an hour and 33 minutes. Way impressive! Everyone else trickled in, all racing incredibly well! After the race, all the runners got a massage from our team therapist, Laurie. What an awesome girl she is! I love her to death! It was great. Most of us made shirts that had the team name on them (Team Bangarang), and the supporters got assignments, like “#1 Fan, Massage, and Paparazi. They were great! The team motto was “Less Flab Mo-Ab!” The announcers at the race even commented on it! It was such a fun experience to be there cheering our friends on there at the finish line. We all hung out for a while, and then decided to head home. Most of us met at a diner halfway home in Price. What great food!

The drive home was definitely interesting. We went from the beautiful 60 degree, sunny weather we had enjoyed all weekend to wind and rain, to sleet, to snow in the space of a three-hour drive. Snow through the most dangerous canyon in the US welcomed us back home to Provo. While the weekend was wonderful, seeing the Y on the mountain was a welcome end to the trip! The funniest part was when twenty of us showed up to church the next day sunburned (I have an awesome sunglasses line!), and had a snowball fight afterwards! At ward prayer we started planning our next trip for the end of the semester so we can all go down and enjoy the sights and some hiking in Arches National Park which we had to skip because we were pressed for time and everyone was (understandably) exhausted.

I was so excited that I even bought a Utah travel guide today. It’s going to be such a blast being in Utah this spring and summer. We’re going to take tons of trips and it will be wonderful to get to see all the sights and be outside so much after being trapped inside by the snow for so long. Yes, we have another day or two of snow before our temperatures start warming up permanently… I can’t wait!

Here are some fun pictures from the trip! (More coming as soon as blogger decides to cooperate)

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is definitely here! Well, at least we think it is. I guess in Utah "spring" means five days of 50 - 70 degree weather, followed by five days of snow and freezing weather. But, here at BYU there are other things that come with the advent of spring...

One of the most annoying parts of spring at BYU is the advent of apartment shopping for all the freshmen, and also all the upperclassmen who have decided to move. I can't tell you how many apartment tours I've given. Nor can I tell you how annoying it is when they occur ten minutes after I get out of the shower and I'm attempting to get ready. Apartment shopping also means new roommates... As for me, I'm staying in the same apartment. I love the location, the ward, and the apartment, so I really have no complaints, aside from the problems I've had with my roommate this year. Plus, I own my own piano, or at least I'm working on owning it, and it's just silly to move it! It turns out that all of my roommates are moving out (one's getting married). My initial reaction was thank goodness! However, I am going to miss my roommate Tiffany, who is one of my best friends and one of the sweetest girls ever. Seriously, no one can be mad to or mad at Tiff. Luckily, she's just moving to another apartment in the same complex, so I will still see her pretty often. I was worried, however, about getting three new roommates. When you don't know them, and sometimes even when you do, it's pure luck if you will get along. I've learned the hard way, this year, how miserable it can be when you don't get along. Fortunately, last night I found out that I will be living with three sweethearts that already live here in my complex. They are absolutely adorable, and I'm really excited. I think this is one of the few changes that I am going to be okay with, and even enjoy!

Everywhere else, February is the month of love. Not here. That's cliche. No, here we celebrate several months of love, beginning March 1st and ending somewhere around August. Let me illustrate my point. I have this apartment of six guy friends in my ward that are awesome. In fact, they are adored by about every girl in the ward, and every girl they know. They truly are amazing! Well, about a week and a half ago, in the space of about three days, all but one of them got a girlfriend! No, really, I'm serious. Now, I don't resent this at all. They are all adorable couples, in fact, one of them is dating my best friend, and we are all very happy for them. But really, it all happened in the space of a few days!

It seems that dating, unless you are steadily dating someone, goes into hibernation with the bears during the winter months. I have lots of really fun guy friends that I love hanging out with, and I never go on dates, which really is completely fine with me. Folks, I kid you not, I have been on three dates in the last 10 days! I had so much fun with three different, but equally incredible and fun guys. Seriously, though, what is going on? Things like this just don't happen! It seems like suddenly the boys have come out of hibernation and even the girls that they're just friends with are date-able! Hey, I'm not complaining, just commenting!

Along with dating comes a flurry of marriage proposals, and huge life-changing events. I have three close friends getting married within three weeks of each other this spring. Two other friends are leaving on missions, and one is even having a baby. Some are graduating and leaving to go to grad school. Still others are preparing for and taking the most important tests of their lives, and applying to medical, dental, or law schools all over the country. And, while sometimes I feel left behind, I'm realizing that all of us are growing up, including me.

I got my cohort assignment last week. I'm assigned to the Wasatch school district. I will spend one month during each of the next two semesters teaching daily in this district. After that, I will intern in that district for one school year. Following my internship, I am guaranteed a job, and second-year teacher pay in the district. I'm excited about my assignment because it will require me to drive through the Provo Canyon twice a day, and I absolutely love the canyon. It's also really nice to know what I will be doing for the rest of my stay in Utah.

The other day my playlist was on random, and Graduation by Vitamin C came on. You know, that really cheesy song that they play on every high school graduation video. I seriously haven't listened to it since high school graduation, which was a good three years ago. I remember we thought that our friendships were really going to last forever. We thought that no one would ever be able to replace our high school friends. Thanks to facebook.com we're better able to keep in touch, but, we all have completely new lives, and we are almost completely different people. I remember sitting and talking to my twenty-something year old cousin a few weeks after graduation, and he told me that the friends that would really make a difference in my life, and the ones that I would really always keep in touch with were the ones I would yet make in college. At the time, I didn't believe him for a moment. Now, I'm realizing he was completely right.

As I listened to the song, I realized that these experiences we're having now are the real thing, and they're so much bigger and more important than any we ever had in high school. A lot of the things in the song made a lot more sense, and applied so much more with all the big changes coming this summer and next summer. Here are some of my insights:

We spend a lot of time talking about the rest of our lives, and our big dreams for the future, but it goes beyond when we turn 25 because some of us are turning 25 this year. I think I did have a notion that things were never going to change, but, they are changing, and we really are growing up and going our very own separate ways. We're getting the big jobs, and making the big money, or at least we will be soon. Our jokes are still funny, and I'm pretty sure they always will be. Even a year later, we laugh at our crazy antics, and stupid mistakes. We've proven that we can survive, even succeed, on our own. Suddenly, we are women and men, going on missions, dating, getting jobs, getting married, and having children. But these really are the memories that will never fade, although the high school memories have. And while this is good-bye for some of us, it is our time to fly, and we will keep in touch. And truly,

As we go on we remember all the times we had together. And as our lives change, come whatever, we will still be friends forever. Literally. Our friendships and bonds of love are eternal. What a beautiful promise. So, when the mission calls, wedding and birth announcements, dental and law school graduations come, we'll be there, cheering each other on, even though we'll be miles and miles apart, our friendships will only change, not end.

Please let me be. Please go away. I am NOT going to get up today [or at least not until you leave]!" ~adapted from Dr. Seuss

So my roommate and I had a huge argument Monday night after FHE. She always wants to confront issues, and personally, I prefer to avoid them. I really only confront issues with people that I really really care about. I know that sounds jerk-ish of me, but, it's the truth. For the most part, the issues aren't big enough, or I don't care enough to extend the energy to fix them... Oh wow, I hate confrontation. So, anyway, she cornered me. For the record, that's super annoying. So, Monday I spent a lot of time over at my friend's house, chatting with his roommates. It's so nice that their apartment is my sanctuary. Luckily, this time, they didn't know that that was a big part of the reason I went over there so much. So anyway, Dave was doing his laundry at my apartment. My roommates don't particularly like it when he does that, but we both think it's funny, and he knows I'll never say no. So, when he came to pick up his laundry, I went in and was chatting with him, and my roommate came home, and started freaking out to my other roommate and her fiance about it. Well, that was it. I walked Dave to the stairs, and then went straight to my best friend Jill's apartment. I asked her if I could sleep there and she said of course, so, we both came to my place and grabbed my stuff. Everyone asked where I was going and why, and I simply said, "I'm spending the night with Jill because I feel like it," daring them to question me. I spent the whole of Tuesday fuming and crying, and writing my roommate a letter, explaining to her how I felt and stating simply that I was NOT going to deal with it anymore, and that I would leave before another confrontation occurred. Luckily, she's moving out in 6 weeks. So anyway, Dave and I had made this deal that if he did his laundry at my place that I got to watch Harry Potter with him when he bought it Tuesday. So, he text messaged me, and I went over there for the rest of the night. My phone died... Yay for no interruptions from the outside world! Hurray! After leaving Dave's house at 11:30, completely exhausted, I went straight back to Jill's house and slept there again. When I got home on Wednesday, she had left me a letter, appologizing, and saying she hoped we could at least be cordial to each other for the next six weeks... We still haven't said more than 6 words to each other since our argument... All I can say is thank goodness for good friends like Jill and Dave, who are always there for me to vent to, who rescue me when I feel trapped, and who never judge me... ever. They are the friends that I cherish. Theirs are the friendships that I have and will continue to fight to keep. Treat me the way they do, and you'll have a friend for life. Judge and belittle me, and you get nothing.