news.

All I have to say is...

(thanks pinterest for the images)

I did it.

Have the merriest of Christmases, and I'll return in January.

All my love, B.

Season of happy.

Despite the impending doom of finals, I have still managed to keep Christmas spirit!

I need to get back to work, but here's a few festive photos.

-paper plate, yarn, and glitter trees, thank you pinterest-

-paper snowflake hangings-

-a delicious, authentic mexican dinner at the red iguana-

-gingerbread-

-the breathtaking salt lake city temple-

-the beautiful hannah-

-reflecting pool-

-joseph smith center-

-ice skating adventures with robby, hannah, jeremy, and laura-

-needed a picture with ty and jake-

-...and ty's turtleneck-

-abby and hannah looking so festive-

-ice skating adventures with heather, rachel, laura, and hannah-

-jonny blom and i matching very nicely at the classy christmas mocktail party-

-sexy and sophisticated with laura-

-hannie and manda-

-excellent friends-

-i love carson!-

-santa clause-

-i absolutely love rachel with all my heart. she is such an inspiring person, inside and out-

-beautiful girls-

I cannot wait for Christmas break! So much more to come.

All my love, B.

Appreciation.

Things I appreciate right this very second:


I appreciate getting to go home for four days and seeing, dressing up with, drinking sparkling cider with, eating raspberries with, and watching Lord of the Rings with the people that inspire me most.

I appreciate my family.

I appreciate wish balloons for 11.11.11

I appreciate the temple all lit up for Christmas, but since I have not yet seen it this year, I appreciate the temple any time really.

I'm beginning to appreciate photography more and more every day.  Goodness I wish I could learn this art for real.

And I appreciate meaningful quotes.


 


Today, however, was one of those days that I could have easily done without.  Not much sleep, hurting eyes (and therefore glasses), feeling awkward, tripping, being late, forgetting assignments, falling asleep, almost crashing the car, spending unnecessary money completely by accident, and a whole lot of homework ahead.


But you know what? I know I used this in a post not too long ago, but this daily reminder is everything:

Life is grand. So stay tuned.


Christmas is coming!!


All my love, B.


ps. Application to France? Done. I'm coming for you, Europe.

avoiding.

It's 12:04 a.m. and I'm avoiding writing the next 4 pages of my Food Economy paper for Writing 150 at all costs.  Mostly because I'm afraid of it, but it MUST be done before I'm allowed to sleep.  This is what I've done:


1. Church (Blessings? Good grade?)
2. Saturday Night Live (I will henceforth have the most enormous crush on Jason Segal, if I didn't already.)
3. 4 hour nap. Yes. 4.
4. Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving.
5. Watch Anastasia (More like, try to outdo the TV volume with my own reenactments of every song)
6. Ward prayer (more blessings?)
7. The internet
8. Boy talk with the twins. 
9. Shower.
10. This.
11. See below




I'm ashamed at myself. And now to put the cherry on top, here's one of those lamezord "about me" quiz things.  Don't even read it.  Seriously. But I can't write this paper.  So I'm doing this instead.


All my love, B.


STOP HERE FOR REAL.

Describe your perfect date in 15 words or less:

Literally any date. <----- (3 word=owned).

Cat person or dog person?

Beta fish person.

Least favorite movie genre?

Westerns or slashers.

Second favorite book?

Tough. I would say since all 7 Harry Potters fall under the same category as #1...The Screwtape Letters, and any other book I could potentially read by C.S. Lewis.

Dessert of choice?

Ice cream.  Or Molten Chocolate cake from Chilis.  I can eat that thing shamefully fast with a friend and 35 seconds.

Favorite season?

Autumn. Especially the smell of autumn. Or summer. Wanna be beach bum.

Favorite activity to do in aforementioned season?

Wearing cozy things and pretending Christmas is always next week. (autumn) Picnics, wearing fedoras and pretending I know how to play the ukulele. (summer)

What kind of music do you listen to?

Indie-chill or dubstep. Get that country crap away from me.

Are you more of a city person or a country person?

Ooh. I would love to live really close to a big city so I can visit whenever I want, but far enough away to see the stars at night. How poetic. Those places only exist in movies.

If you could have lunch with any person from past or present, who would it be and what would you order?

Coco Chanel. Or Gordon B. Hinckley...and probably pizza.

What are three things that set you apart/make you different from the rest of the girls in Provo?

1. I'm a Texan but I have next to no Texas pride.

2. Getting married is the backup plan to a mission...NOT the other way around.

3. I'm terrible at flirting. Awful.  I think native Utah'ns (eh?) learn it in school or something. I'm at a loss.

Are you a clever person? i.e. if I take you to the murder mystery dinner, will you be a useful addition to my mystery-solving team?

Absolutely not.  I will effortlessly solve any sudoku puzzle you set in front of me, but any time I watch a mystery show the ending takes me by complete surprise.

What are you most passionate about?

I refuse...REFUSE...to judge other people before I know the situation.  That is NOT my place, or yours, or my parents' or your parents' or anyone else's place.  Accept people even if it's not exactly what you agree with.  If they're not offending you personally, or anyone else, no harm done.  Let God do the rest.  I'll stop there, because I could literally argue this point for hours.

What is your favorite scripture and why?

2 Nephi 1 changed my life.  It doesn't seem like that profound of a chapter, but I read it in the right place at the right time. 

If you were granted three wishes what would they be?

Go to France, Figure out exactly what I need to do with my life, Marry a J-Crew model.

What is the most adventurous thing you've ever done?

Roller-coastering, amusement park skydiving, rock climbing, bridge jumping.  I need to get out more.  Jeez.

What makes you laugh?

Anything and everything.

What is the silliest-sounding word you know?

...and he SLUNK to the fridge. SLUNK.

If a movie was made of your life, the soundtrack would consist mainly of songs by:

While trying to avoid sounding all tortured and hipster, it would definitely be Mumford and Sons or the Decemberists.  Mumford's album is the emotional musical version of my diary, and the Decemberists tell random stories, also included in my diary.  But on a lighter note, the entire Les Miserables soundtrack would be in there along with plenty of Celine Dion.

Height?

5'3".  If I wear heels, I become normal size.  But as wearing heels equates to a major life hazard to anyone within a twelve foot radius of me when I do, I'm doomed to be short.

Finished.

So...I'm starting to really, really, really hate not being sure of what I want to do with my life.  The only, even partially, sure things ahead are going to France in April and going to the CIA recruitment meeting in January with Laura.

Anyway.......I hope you didn't put yourself through that.  But if you did, and you're in Provo, you're guaranteed a date if you bring Ben & Jerry's Imagined Whirled Peace to my door.

Win.

Today was good.

Turned in my essay (who proofreads first?)

1 class.

Got paid.

Worked out...VERY WELL I MIGHT ADD.

Sang to adorable old people.

Free dinner.


First temple trip in far too long = PLANNED.

Signed up for twitter. Mistake.

Definitely still pretending my research paper doesn't exist.

Watched Hercules.

And Easy A.

And I have to get up in 3 hours.

Talked to this kid. He can read now. What a winner.

Go to bed, loves.

All my love, B.

p.s. GoInG 2 c Br3aKinG dAwnn 2mAr0 wiTH mY BfFlz 4 LyFe. !!!!! ~*~*~* :))

p.p.s. ^Hating and sarcasm.

p.p.p.s. I actually am going to see it. Darn.

wants.

I found this and I almost can't get over it. I want it.


I want to find scholarships to study abroad. So close. So close.


I want Christmas. 


I want to learn how to walk in heels.


I want pinterest to stop being so dang addicting


I want everyone to go watch parenthood. Right now. 
I don't like kids and this is the greatest.


I want to go buy Harry Potter.


I want crazy wonderful socks.


I want to not ever have to sleep.


I want some hot chocolate. Right now.


I want to finish I am America and So Can You that I started in July


And I also want to read the Dragon Tattoo book #2.


And see movie number 1.


And see Hunger Games....wowwwww.


I want both of these essays to write themselves.  Which, speaking of, I'll go do now.


I want to pretend like Writing 150 is not going to kill my average and take away my scholarship.


I want to stop holding back.


I want to matter.


I want to see my sisters.

I want to see my actual sisters, (and brother) even more.

That would be all. Things on my mind.


All my love, B.

more than a memory.

Happy Saturday, everyone!


I have this memory, a very faint one, that has been weighing heavily on mind the past few weeks. And right now, I think it will be taking up too much of my mind to focus on my Anthropology homework until I share it.


Just be warned… If you're not prepared for a pretty deep, diary-entry kind of sappy sob story, I would turn back now. I've been thinking hard about a good way to write this, and a good outlet in which to do so for quite some time now, and believe me, the minute I publish this I will then press print, and it will go straight into my journal.  That's kind of how personal it is.  But I still want to share it, and I hope it will help you think about your own similar memories, and help bring the spirit to your day.


But if you really want to keep reading I think, since this memory/story/whatever you would like to call it has more of a spiritual nature than anything, it might be a good idea before you continue to just scroll down to the bottom of the page and press pause on that fun little playlist, and listen to this while you read instead: 

(Many thanks to Melanie and her excellent yoga classes for leading me to this song)

Have you ever taken time to think about the very first time you ever experienced a specific emotion? This is a difficult concept to try and explain.  By that, I don't mean, for example, the first time you ever experienced love as being the first time you were ever actually in love with someone yourself, but more like, the first time you realized you knew what love must feel like? Sort of like, the first time you ever saw two people care so much for each other that it touched your own heart and you knew that THAT absolutely must be what that is. That happened to me when I was about seven. I had obviously never been in love myself at that point, except with my immediate family, my Barbie dolls, and my Disney movies, but after one experience, which I'll save for another time to describe, I knew that I knew that's what it was. And I couldn't wait to experience it for myself one day.

Well, this story is kind of like that, but involving a slightly different feeling, but that I think stems from the same part of your heart...and that is compassion, or real, heart breaking sorrow for the trials of another Child of God.

I remember being ten or eleven years old, at the height of the most self-absorbed, narcissistic stage of my life.  I was on a school bus, returning to school from a field trip of some kind, I can't even remember.  It must have been May or August, at the very end or very beginning of the school year, because it was unbearably hot.  We were driving down a long, empty, two lane road, and there were no cars for miles ahead or behind us, and there was nothing but sun-damaged, ugly, yellow grass in every direction.  

Somewhere in the middle of this desert, though, we approached a boy on the side of the road, and in less than five seconds, I learned the greatest lesson from this one person than I ever have, before or since, in my life.  This boy could not have been older than sixteen or seventeen, and he was dressed entirely in black from head to toe, carrying a full, heavy backpack that was practically ripped to pieces.  He was also completely drenched in sweat, and it was obvious he hadn't had any water in far too long, given the heat.  The thing that struck me most, however, was the fact that he could barely walk because he was limping, and in his hands was a torn up sign, and the 8 words written on it were the first words I ever read that ripped me to pieces.

"Please help, I just want to go home."

I considered myself to be a nice enough person back then, but like any normal ten or eleven-year-old, my own cares and problems had a short shelf-life and rarely extended beyond silly fights with my younger sisters, or what I might be wearing to school the next day.  I lived a very, very sheltered life, and I'm certainly paying for that now.  I had seen homeless people around before, of course, but I never, ever paid them any attention.  "They did that to themselves," I was told about most of them, or "all they want is your money, so they can run off and waste it on their next drugs, alcohol, etc., and they'll ruin their lives even further," and even if it wasn't true, which I'm sure in many cases it wasn't, I never let myself be bothered by "those people." I had a nice, two story home, my own room, nice clothes, food on the table, and a family that loved me, so at that age what did I have to worry myself with these people, who just didn't take care of themselves enough to have the same kind of nice life that I did?

But this boy taught me different. Somehow, in those five seconds in which my school bus approached and then left him behind forever, I knew he was different than the other people with unfortunate lives that I had come across before. It was almost like a spiritual manifestation that let me know he didn't deserve what he was going through, and it was very first time I ever felt truly sorrowful over what another person, another Child of God, was experiencing. 

I was the only person on that bus, as far as I know, that even noticed how much this boy was hurting.  I asked everyone around me, my friends and my teachers, if they saw.  Most of them hadn't, and even if they did they hadn't though anything of it. It broke my heart to know that nobody but my school group had passed by him in hours, and that in an entire caravan of school buses, with backpacks full of food and water, any one of them could have stopped by to offer him, if not a ride, a simple aid to get him on his way, but instead we left him behind and  nobody ever gave him another thought.

I remember walking in my front door after arriving home and breaking down in tears trying to describe the whole thing to my mother.  I remember her being a little bit confused as to why this experience upset me so much, but trying to calmly reassure me that there was absolutely nothing that I, one single small, powerless student on a school bus with a tight schedule, could have done to change what happened.  And I knew it was true, but it didn't really make me feel any better. 

I've thought about this boy from time to time ever since this happened. I don't know anything about him, where he came from, his name, or where he wanted to go other than "home", and though I'm sure he'll never know the effect he had on me in those few seconds, I have been rooting for him ever since.  He gave me my first true glimpse of what true compassion is like.  Even further, for the first time I truly recognized the true eternal nature of another precious Child of God.  I knew and had been taught that I myself was a Child of God, loved beyond my wildest imagination, from the time I was born.  But I knew in that moment that God loved this boy and wanted the best for him, perfectly and exactly as much as He wanted it for me. I couldn't do a single thing about his circumstances, and like the example of love I used earlier in which at age seven I couldn't personally experience what love really was like, this particular situation is entirely responsible for illuminating for me how it was necessary for me to continue feeling love and compassion for others in the future, and recognizing the love Heavenly Father has for all of his precious children. I'm not even close to claiming that I'm the most perfectly Christlike example of a generous, loving, completely full of service individual, but this experience singlehandedly taught me the value of striving every day to become one. 

I'm sure I'll never meet this boy face to face in this life, although I suppose that if I ever have, there would be know way of knowing. I would never recognize him enough to ask "Were you that struggling, injured boy on the side of the road somewhere between Keller and Fort Worth sometime in the afternoon in maybe May or August almost a decade ago?" and he would never in a million years be able to see me and ask "Hi, were you that one girl in a line of buses who never forgot about me?" But I keep a small part of my heart reserved entirely for hoping that he found his way back home. 

We all have those lists of questions, either in our journals, or our minds and hearts, of questions that we have reserved for Heavenly Father when we finally meet Him.  This boy's well-being has been on that list of questions ever since I saw him, and I have faith that one day we'll meet and I'll get to thank him for changing my life.

All my love, B.