Power pony-tails and some goals

Hey there blog! So I have to be honest, this year, 18 is kind of a weird one. I'm only in high school for a few more months, but then I am too young to leave for my mission, so I just have about five months that aren't high school or summer or mission. I know I can't start college, but it's such a weird amount of time to start and then defer. Anyway, although this is a weird year, and basically I'm just ready to be 19 and go serve the Lord, I want to make it a great year, so I'm gunna makes some goals. Usually I do this on a piece of paper and put it in my wallet, but with my 17 goals to do as a 17-year old, I lost my wallet and thus have no idea whatsoever what I planned to do, so we're just gunna shoot my goals out into cyberspace and hopefully they'll still be here when I'm no longer 18. Here we go!

18 goals for my 18th year of life:  

1. Let the Lord be my best friend. 

2. Drink more water.

3. Dress well, modestly and with care.

4. Get ready for a mission!

5. Let people talk about themselves.

6. Get pictures with all the temples in Utah. 

7. Don't ever be ashamed of being sad. 

8. Care more about being kind than funny

9. Seek after virtuous, lovely things.

10. Chase what I love. 

11. Just sit in the sun sometimes. 

12. Learn to cook well and not poison myself!

13. Have more patience and faith in others. 

14. Think fondly of my past, look forward to the future.

15. Invite others to be confident in Christ.

16. Always be gentle with myself.

17. Mourn with those that mourn. 

18. Be happy and help others do the same. 

17 things I learned from being 17

Wow guys. Guess what? I am officially 18! that's insaine! I'm a grown-up I guess is what they call it, I think it's pretty misnamed though because I'm pretty sure as I got older the less mature I got. I also haven't grown up since the 8th grade, so...
Anyway, although I like to joke about living in neverland and never getting older or wiser, I have to admit I have learned some new things this year, I will share.

17 things I learned  from being 17:

1. You are never to young to be in love, or too old to play with mermaids

2. Everyone you meet has their own stories and battles they are dealing with

3. Good writing isn't always the stuff your english teacher has you read

4. Nobody can tell you how much you should or shouldn't care about something or someone

5. Wearing skirts is not only adorable, but also liberating

6. The best thing to be is kind

7. There's a reason to be in every moment. Even if you feel ready to move on to the next stage of life, if you have to wait, then there's more you need to learn

8. If at first your cake comes out really dry, try, try again

9. A good cuddle is sometimes (always) necessary

10. Crying is good for your body and releases pain killers

11. The right people can make any situation wonderful

12. Sunshine is the proper medicine for any ailment (except for sunburns)

13. Kissing is... not hard ;)

14. You should never have to convince someone to treat you the way you should be treated

15. Sometimes it takes a challenge for us to listen to what the important people are saying

16. Sometimes people change us just by being kind and wonderful and ours.

17. If you are having problems, it's probably because you haven't made a blanket fort in a while. Just saying.

Anyway, I hope this post was more than a waste of 30 minutes (I kept getting distracted ok!) and that I may remember the things I learned as a 17 year old. I guess it's time to move on to bigger and better 18 year old things, but don't worry, blog, I promise I won't grow up, I'll just make it seem like I am, and then everyone will be fooled but you and me, then we will have a good laugh and drink our juice boxes. THE END

My Fam> Yours

So you know how it seems like I'm an only child? Well I'm excited to inform you that I'm not! This week my wonderful family came to town and we basically had a wild rumpus. We played games, we watched a ridiculous amount of The Great British Baking Show, we fought over my oldest sister's adorable baby, we made some great food, and we talked a lot of baby talk. It was incredibly wonderful to be with my favorite people in my life. The great thing is our family is forever and we can have lovely weeks like that for eternity. 

The pros and cons of Neverland, and the truth about leaving it

Ok, here's the scoop: I turn 18 in one month exactly. That's 31 days from now. One month is not very long, especially when it's your last month as a child. Truth is: I'm very, very nervous. It seems to me that being an adult is something I never was going to do! The other day my mom said, "it's ok, she's basically an adult, she can hang out with us." Basically and adult? Time is trying to kidnap me from neverland! I don't want to grow up! I wand to be 7 forever! And play pretend, and use the foot of my bed as a horse or a motorcycle or whatever I want. I want to steal the tablecloth and some paper clips and make myself a princess dress and crown! I want to give my barbies makeovers, and make blanket forts, an not worry about college, or living on my own, or making the wrong decisions and putting myself on completely the wrong course forever! Ok, drama time over. I've had enough of that today. I can't lie though, and say I'm not also a little excited about turning 18. Adults can do a lot of things I can't that I wish I could, the most wonderful one being going through the temple, something I would gladly drop everything and do right now if I could. I'm pretty excited about going on my mission, and going to college, and becoming a wife and mother and who I was put on earth to be. I guess the point of this post, and the reason I wrote 500 more words than I would normally even read on a blog, is to say this: I'm nervous, and excited, and anxious, and hopeful  about the future and what is to come. And that's really all I can say about it.

Because words are hard.

Not gunna lie. I'm not really feeling like writing blog posts lately. Especially when I already have to write six BYU essays, three essays for English and one ridiculous essay for Student Council. I guess you could say all my writing skills have been taped out. So let's try something new. A video! My family went to Bryce Canyon over New Years and so I made a little video of the trip. Hope you enjoy!

We'll frolic and play the eskimo way

So I only planned on putting one awkward snow selfie of me on here, but I couldn't pick, so bear with me. I know I'm vain. It's fine. My dress is red ok? What would you do?

Today it snowed, and snowed, and snowed. You can see in those pictures that it reaches halfway up my leg! It made me want to sing white Christmas, and make snow angels, and walk around a lovely frozen pond, but instead I got to shovel half the driveway (the other half was too snowy for us to get to today) and laugh because our car just so happened to break down the one day we decide to drive to Idaho. It's all good folks, because what's Christmas without a few mishaps?

Besides that Christmas has been pretty uneventful this year. We got up and waited for the heater to turn on, and off and on again, opened up the presents under the tree, and headed to my Grandmas house for lunch. Then we headed to Idaho to spend time with the most wonderful family that I know.

Anyway, merry Christmas to all the readers I pretend are seeing this, and to all a good night!

Lately

Well here's the truth. lately I'm not on the top of the world. But that's life and sometimes you have down days. Sometimes you try and go through a car wash and then wined up with seven dollars in quarters, but not a washed car. Sometimes you ask someone to a dance without thinking about the fact that you really don't want to go, and sometimes your math teacher reads your (very embarrassing) response to the dance in front of the whole class. Sometimes you FaceTime your sister just so you're not alone, and sometimes you try to recreate a very sassy picture, but it comes out kind of blue and melancholy. I guess the camera doesn't lie. But it's times like these, times when you're failing a few classes and you accidentally cut yourself trying to carve a tree and the clouds are constantly making everything look kind of bleach, that you turn to The Lord and He carries you completely. And you come out of times like these realizing you don't ever, ever want to stop holding tight to the Savior. Even when times are good again. You never want to let him go.

Farewell my dear heart

Not over. Just different.

I'm a sucker for a snowstorm

Hey there blog that I've been dutifully ignoring. Sorry I haven't been posting. I would blame it on the flu that I caught, but then what would be my excuse for last month and the month before? Anyway, life has been pretty eventful. I've recently traveled to Wisconsin to see my baby nephew!! (Pictures will maybe get on here, if I ever post again) It was a fantastic trip, one of the best. I've been giving in to the urge to listen to Christmas music always, and also giving in to a weird desire to wear lipstick every time it snows. A handsome boy took me dancing in the snow this morning, so I guess you could say life is pretty stellar.

Count your Blessings

Hey there blog readers I pretend are reading this! (Honestly it's usually just me), today I was sitting with my mom playing "Count your Blessings" on the ukulele, and I thought maybe it would be a nice thing to count my blessings on this here little patch of the internet.
Blessings today:
-My brand new gratitude journal
-The best playlist ever full basically just of musicals
-That one fellow who happens to be one of my best friends
-My momma "jammin'" with me on the couch
-My awesome lovely sister who takes me around Utah valley to look for temples
-The beautiful house of the Lord
-Snail mail to my favorite brother