Missionary Home, Version 1

Back in July of 2009, our family said goodbye to Rebecca for a season. We dropped her off at the Missionary Training Center, and from that point on we heard from her only in e-mails and letters. For the rest of that year and the entire year of 2010 my sister served a mission for the LDS church in Peru.Turns out, I missed having her around. Crazy to miss the sister closest in age to me, I know.

The living arrangements in our apartment worked out for Rebecca to move in here once she got home. For a month, I lived in a room by myself because Kara-turned-Rebecca's bed was empty. I got tired of seeing that blue and white flowery mattress; not only was it not so pretty, but it meant that I didn't have a friend living in my room with me. Once it wouldn't be a ridiculously long chain, I began the countdown for Rebecca. I used that as decoration for that north side of the bedroom since nothing else was over there.

I waited....
and waited...
and soon the day had almost arrived for her return!

January 26th: I made a poster, got balloons, and skipped class to drive up to Salt Lake. Once there, I met up with most of Eric's family (Natalie was in school) to go greet our sister/aunt. We were so stinkin' excited!! Eveyln got the big responsibility of carrying the poster, and she loved it:

We waited for a few minutes before Rebecca came down the stairs. We were surrounded by at least 6 other families waiting for missionaries, which was a very foreign concept to me. There certainly has never been a homecoming welcoming crew for more than one missionary at a time back in Midland! The Blakes kept their eyes peeled:

I was so antsy! When she finally started down the stairs, I think she had a hard time finding us. Sadly enough, we were basically the smallest group of people waiting for our missionary so it's understandable that we blended in. I took a video of her coming in, but it turned out kind of shaky (I was crying of course! I'm my mother's daughter! :D). In the video you might be able to hear that I was trying to call out her name or get her attention so that she knew that her family loved her enough to come greet her.



And she's BACK!

I'm pretty sure she was amazed at how huge Evelyn is now compared to 18 months earlier:

Here's the welcoming committee:

I'm so glad to finally have Rebecca back in the United States!

....and so is Evelyn! :)

Now she's been back for about a month. In that time Rebecca got to go out and make a surprise visit to Mom on her own mission in California, she's moved into our apartment, and she's gradually adjusting to life back in a singles' ward, in English, and with not a lot to do each day. Hooray! Missions and missionaries are wonderful, but having family around is lotsa wonderful, too.

Soon I'll get to have my mommie come home! I'll let you know when she returns! :D

Valentine's Day, Part 2

Turns out, I'm a liar. I did have a valentine!

Once upon a time, our ward has these things called nice notes. After Ward Prayer each Sunday, people can write notes to be delivered to anyone in the ward. A few weeks ago I was on a nice note writing roll, and I wrote a ton of people short notes. Some were serious, some were funny, some were signed, some were anonymous. One of my joking, anonymous notes was to Nate Kuhlman, simply because I figured he'd appreciate a funny note. I promptly forgot about my deed.

That week our weekly ward email included the following notice: "Nate Kuhlmann received a "nice note" this past Sunday. After determining that it was not from his roommates he pondered the note. It said " Dear Nate, will you be my valentine..." However the note was left anonymous. He would like to know the identity of the (hopefully) girl so that he can respond." Upon remembering my clever note-writing skillz, I laughed in great joy of my fame in the ward email. I quickly brainstormed many ideas of how to continue the anonymous humor.

As per my plan, I wrote another anonymous note to Nate this past Sunday (the day before Valentine's Day). But, I also made sure I talked to him in person about that "mysterious" note. "Nate," said I, "Are you sure it's not your roommates playing a joke on you?" He was sure. "Do you think you'll get another note tonight?" He was curious. And later, "Nate, did you get one?!" He did. "Is it the same handwriting?" He needed to check. "Who do you think it could be?" He had no idea.

Conveniently our FHE activity on Monday was making valentines. Luckily for me, Nate's slacking paid off when he didn't show up to our group that night. Thus, I made my valentines for him right in plain sight of the rest of the FHE group. With the help of some sneaky friends, I taped a few valentines on his door. (And boy, a door with a big window next to it does not lend itself to the easiest form of trickery!)

My kind regards included:
N is for Nice.
A is for Amazing.
T is for True Love.
E is for.... Eternity with me??

Unfortunately, Nate and roommate David decided to do a little sleuthing and came snooping around at our apartment. They discovered a valentine I had written (and signed) in the same color of paper, with the same pen, and in what looked like the same handwriting. I thought I was a goner. Nevertheless, without lying, I managed to get them off my trail for at least a good 10 minutes!! Haha. They even left to go talk to more people from our group and/or find more evidence before they confronted me again. Once they basically had all the facts (and with a little bit of help from a certain tattling Dan), I admitted to my sneaky deeds. But by golly, I had 'em good.

I told Nate he was a horrible Valentine for not having done anything for me. He countered my argument with the valid point that he just found out who I was and couldn't have done anything sooner. I expected at least something on my door by the end of the day, and I made sure Nate knew how I felt.

Again, I practically forgot the situation.

That evening when I was innocently studying on my computer (and by "studying," I mean "writing my blog post about my lack of a Valentine") in my basement, I heard someone coming down the stairs. Upon meeting Nate there, I was greeted with a card, a handful (a big one at that) of Hershey's Kisses, and flowers. Dude! I had to eat my words with all that grub! haha. How did he manage to get the hook-up so late on a Valentine's Day, I ask?! A job well-done, Nate. You're my best Valentine yet. Bahaha.

A Lovely Day

I don't have a valentine. I'll be straight-up honest. But I'm okay with that. Am I a girl who dreams of a romance and often wonders who that man will be who wins my heart? Yes. Am I a girl who loves reading cheesy romantic novels and watching romantic comedies? Yes. Am I the kind of girl who will stay in bed on a Saturday morning and watch "Pride and Prejudice," just because I would rather vicariously fall in love with Mr. Darcy than do homework? Yes. (In fact, you can be sure that my activity this past Saturday was just that.) But those of you who know me know that even though I'm a romantic at heart, I am not a "girlie girl." Indeed, often I pride myself on how un-dramatic and silly I am in situations when other girls would go crazy. Though Valentine's Day is not just a holiday for "girlie girls," the same reasons I'm not a "girlie girl" get me through a day like today where so much emphasis is put on couples. Clearly, when I have another half to my couple, my thoughts will most likely change. However, in my current status, I'll have to agree with one of my friends who said that the thing that bothers her about Valentine's Day is "people who complain about Valentine's Day." Though I'm not terribly bugged (What do I really get terribly bugged at anyway, folks? I'm pretty chill.), I do admit that today was just like any other day. The only difference? I had a good excuse for eating so much chocolate. Amazing. (And yes, I did buy myself chocolate. You gotta do what you gotta do when you don't have a valentine! :D)

In parting, I'll leave you with some appropriately-themed pictures I took a few years ago. (Here's a shout-out to my good ole home and backyard in Midland!)

Feeling Sad?

Today as I walked home from campus, I was in a gloomy mood. You know those moods. They're the ones that sneak up on you so quickly and then take a while to go away. They're the ones that come when you are feeling overwhelmed, unproductive, worried, stressed, or selfish. Sometimes they come to me because I've already exhausted all the anger I can feel toward a situation or because I'm grumpy about something that didn't happen in an ideal manner. Other times they come because I feel like my efforts toward a noble goal are futile, or because I'm just tired of waiting for whatever it is I'm waiting for. Other times, like today, I'm attacked by a gloomy mood for no apparent reason.

After feeling gloomy for about 5 minutes, I decided to quit giving in to that mood. Instead of thinking about what I didn't have, I started thinking about what I do have. Prayer, counting blessings, and remembering happy thoughts can go a long way.

"And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve." - 2 Nephi 24:3

I'm so glad that something encouraged me to begin counting my blessings, because when I got home I found the blog of a nice girl from one of my classes last semester. As I read a few past posts, I learned of how her mother passed away about a year ago. I was brought to tears as I read a few of her descriptions of memories of pain, because I remembered experiencing those same things when my dad passed away 5 years ago. Her descriptions of help from family, friends, and ward members warmed my heart because I remembered those same blessings in my life. Her humorous account of receiving two dinners in the same night and hurrying to clean up the evidence of the first made me laugh through the tears as I pictured all the many casseroles that filled our freezer for months. I'm glad that being in the mindset of counting blessings enabled me to feel the love of my Heavenly Father instead of just temporarily breaking down.

Continuing on the "counting blessings" theme, Happy 35th Anniversary of your marriage and sealing, Mom and Dad! It's a day late, but I'm so grateful for your faithfulness and for your righteous step in starting out our family right that February 7th in the Provo Temple.

p.s. Getting quickly out of that gloomy mood also helped me laugh-off of the huge fall I had while walking home. Silly ice. haha.

One Fourth

Sometimes the nerd in me comes out when I think about life and transform it to statistics. Am I the only one who does this? Today I choose the number 1/4. Here's how it can tie in to my life:

• Today marks the day that I have lived 25% of my age without my dad. Five years ago today I was quietly napping in his hospital room, dreaming a very peaceful dream, when he passed away. Do the math and you can figure out my age.
• A fourth of the original 8 Blake kids live where I live. As in, Rebecca and I are holding down the "Living with a Sibling" fort.
• My apartment has one fourth of its residents who are engaged (or dating, for that matter).
  
• 1/4 cup of food is often too small for my liking. Since I'm in NDFS 100 right now, I've been having to keep track of the food that I eat for a few days. I kind of hate the assignment, 'cause measuring food and feeling guilty for little snacks that I might forget to write down is not fun.
• This semester is 1/4th completed. Crazy. And the death-level of assignments, tests, papers, and homework I've had to do the past few days is proof that my teachers all think right now is a good time to measure what we've learned so far.
• This week I've had roughly a fourth of my total life hours be in sleep. That sounds cool, but when you think about how much sleep I'm advised to get, I'm far under-rested. The 17 hours of sleep I've had since Sunday (counting that 1.5 hr nap today) is not enough for me to properly function.
• "Did you know that one in four dentists say that studying in the library is a six bajillion times more effective than studying in the shower?" (And maybe the real quote from here says "8 out of 5 dentists," but I had to make it work for my theme...) Steven Jones, the guy in that video, is a huge celebrity at BYU. From a newspaper article today, I found out that he was once one of the Cosmo mascots. Now that he's graduated, that information is public, I guess. Cool. Plus, have you ever studied in the shower? It's kind of fun. Just tape up a copy of the desired page on your far shower wall, and you've got reading material to tease your brain while you scrub your scalp. I should know since I used to do that in high school. Surprisingly, I memorized quite a few scripture mastery verses that way...
• More than 1/4th of the BYU Basketball game is probably over, so I should go watch it and see how we're doing! See ya!