My most favoritest weekend of the year

General conference, I love it. And it just so happened to change my life within the first 10 minutes of listening to it.
Ever since I was little I planned on going to BYU. I wanted to go there and be room mates with my best friend Aly, we wanted to go and make it the best college experience ever, and then I wanted to get married. Even when we were five, Aly and I talked about what our future husbands would be like, what we would name our kids, what our wedding dresses would look like and we decided that we would have these beautiful houses right next door to each other...but reality suddenly hit me the other day;
Our beloved prophet President Thomas S. Monson made the announcement that young men could go on missions at the age of 18 rather than 19, and young women at age 19 rather than 21. After that session Aly called me and we excitedly discussed the new change. Aly then suddenly burst out, "This means I could be married in two years!" ...it was like reality had just slapped me in the face. Aly is pretty confident that she already knows who she is going to marry, and I won't be surprised if they do, they are seriously perfect for each other. But I don't want to grow up yet, I don't want to have to be applying for colleges and sending in ACT scores and looking for a job. I don't want to have to decide what college I'm really going to go to or what I might major in...I don't want to be planning my best friends wedding (even though that would be a ways away, but still). It just seems too fast and it's just getting really real. And now this means that he could go on a mission in about eight months, and I'll be going in less than two and a half years.
In the past year I have decided that I will be going on a mission. But now I'll probably be going a lot sooner than I had originally planned. This is great news! It really is, it just has also been a great reality check as I've realized that I'm growing up. It's finally time to make all those dreams that I had as a little kid come true.  

 The good old days when we would play dress up

 and sit in our "tree house" for hours on end

and sit on giant pumpkins together...

...but now as we grow we have so many new things to look forward to.

Let's be Friends

Sometimes you meet extraordinary people amongst the bustle of every-day life, 
and it feels like you've been friends
for years, and years, and years.
 It doesn't feel like you're welcoming the new face into the collection of familiars,
rather, you're refreshing an old memory of an old face you never get to see. 
You skip the introductions, the stupid remarks, and the small talk.
You skip all the usual occurrences that normal people undergoing introductions endure, 
for you see, this introduction in particular doesn't feel like much of an introduction at all.
 Deep down, despite the lacking memories and the empty safe that's supposed to be filled with long-hushed secrets,
your meeting feels like more of a reunion.

And just like that,
you find yourselves hidden within a safe place,
tucked away from the chaotic world, 
as every secret that has been locked within your heart for so many years manages to slither out of your lips.
 Somehow, this new-found friend held the key that unlocked all your secrets.
You soon realize that before you could even stop it from happening,
you'd become genuine friends;

A friend that tells me I'm wrong,

no matter how much I like to think that I'm right.

You show me the good, even when everything seems bad.

You go along with all my crazy ideas and activities,

even when I know you really don't want to.

You're someone who listens to my ramblings of life,

and you actually listen.

This short time in my life, where we have known each other, has surpassed all other times, even though we haven't done anything particularly spectacular. 

Every simple day moment seems so much better with friends, with the people you love. 

So thanks for making my ordinary life something much more

extraordinary.

Click on this ^ photo for a magical surprise :)

 

Learning to Dance in the Rain

Life's still not perfect, the storm's not quite over, but rather, I've learned to dance in the rain
Litterally.
Out in the dark of night, huge rain drops poured, and we danced. Running around, screaming, laughing, jumping in puddles. We splashed each other, us as friends. And as the water dripped down my face I realized that I was happy. Standing there in the freezing cold rain, I was happy.

The Fairytale I needed

It was magical...no words can describe the complete and utter joy I felt yesterday as I once again learned what it feels like to just live.

First of all: I got asked to Homecoming! When the doorbell rang I was in my pajamas getting ready to go to bed and my mom called me up saying the door was for me. Finally, I thought, things might be turning for the better. So I ran up the stairs to find this on my porch:

P.S. that little^ rock on the left said Yes on it
I was glad, and even though the BYU-Utah game happens to be on the same day as homecoming, I got over it :)
Well, the next day was school, but being Friday, everything was a little better. My best friend and I even went out to JCW's for lunch and began our 'try-every-flavor-of-ice cream-at-JCW's-challenge'. And even though I was late for 4th period, I didn't care.
After school my best friend decided to help me answer Ben to homecoming. So there we were, along with our other friends McKell and Heather, making cupcakes and a poster with "It would rock my world to go to homecoming with you" with the O on rOck being the actual rock saying yes on it. And then on Ben's porch there was sitting some random sidewalk chalk, therefore, we decided to draw a pretty chalk mural around the cupcakes and such before we doorbell ditched them and secretly watched as Ben's little sister opened the door and just stood there staring at it for a little while. 

After that little adventure we decided to be spontaneous, we went to U-Swirl and had a TON of free samples. I tried every flavor, some multiple times, so yes it was a lot of frozen yogurt, and then we bought a bunch of those little round topping things that explode in your mouth...they make me happy. At this point we had no where to go, so we drove around. We even went around a round-a-bout 12 times...yes 12, I was dizzy. And somehow we ended up in front of some random persons house, parking the car, and adventuring down into this little hidden pond. We went under this willow tree, a gigantic willow tree, where it was just us, enclosed in this little safe haven. There was a swing, so I swung, the warm summer air blowing my hair...and at that moment I forgot about all my worries-of school, and friends, and life- cause at that moment, everything was perfect. 

We continued on our adventure, climbing through wire fences, up and over hills, hopping over ditches and walking through the tall grass, until we came to the tree. Our tree, the perfect tree, in which we climbed until we could climb no higher, and we sat. We sat there, and I looked up, up through the green tree canopy, up to where the night sky was lit by the full blue moon. Up. To where my newly found best friend sat, at only one week of acquaintance he was teaching me how to live, how to love, and how to be happy.