All Hope is Gone

As I was walking to school this morning I took the short cut across the grassy area of my apartment complex. When I walked into the shadow of one of the buildings, something crunched under my feet. First thoughts: maybe a very small mammal or very large bug. But when I looked down to see what had crunched beneath my bright pink Levi shoes, I saw something that made my heart drop:  frozen grass. Really? Already?! There is already frost in all the places that the sun doesn't reach in the mornings. 

From here on out, there is no hope to ever be warm again until I go home to Washington. Welp, here we go folks!

Friends

This post is kind of a shout out to all of my wonderful girl-friends.  One such friend, Sarah, is someone I adore and have loved getting to talk to a lot lately! We have known each other since we were around 12 or 13, but didn't become really close friends until a couple years later. Since then we were practically inseparable. From spending every minute together at church, mutual, and stake dances, to EFY and sleepovers Sarah and I have been best friends. When she went away to school, I was in my senior year of high school and we didn't get to talk as often because we were both busy. From there, we got to hang out a little once I got to BYU in Provo, UT. And then she left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When she returned home  it took us around a month to get back in touch with each other, and since then it has been so much fun to finally get caught up in each other's lives and start rebuilding our friendship. We've always been friends, despite how long it had been since we talked last. But it's so fun to talk with her again!

Last night she called me and we talked about our days and how things were going, and we started talking about marriage. Our conversation naturally drifts to love lives considering we are girls, but since I'm getting married in 79 days we find ourselves often talking about marriage. Anyways, we started talking about how much fun it is to be in love with somebody who is your best friend. Who knows how to make you laugh even though you might be a little upset and want to be angry. How being with somebody who knows you better than most other people, and while they may frustrate you sometimes, you wouldn't want to be without them. And we basically went on to continue talking about mushy, romantic stuff. You know, girl talk. 

When I think about the wonderful friends that I have in my life, I am so blessed! My family, for one, is amazing. I love my siblings and parents and don't know what I would do without their love and support. Then I have wonderful friends such as Shelly, Katelyn, Tasha, and Rachel who have been with me since Kindergarten. These girls have never let me down. Tessa, who is the most darling girl and who I have so much fun with, is a blessing. She is always uplifting and has such a positive outlook. I love her! There are plenty of others who have blessed my life and you all know who you are. The words from one of my favorite hymns comes to mind:

What greater gift dost thou bestow,

What greater goodness can we know

Than Christ-like friends, whose gentle ways

Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

Blustery

To be honest, today has been a difficult day for me. When thinking about the past fourteen hours, blustery was one of the only words I could come up with to describe the day. ...well, at least it was one of the only appropriate ones. It isn't like I have had the worst day of my life. And it's not like I experienced a life changing emotional tragedy. Today has just been... how should I say this? Here, I have an idea.

I have never been one to let things in life bother me too much. My personality has always been one that goes with the flow, and if something upsetting happens I let myself be upset about for a little and then move on. I've always been able to just let things roll off my shoulders and be happy once again. But today... I don't know what was going on, but everything just seemed awful. When I was a kid my family had the video "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day."  I loved this video (among many, many others) and would watch it quite often. It was about a rainy, windy day that sent the poor bear on a horrible adventure. A big storm comes and washes him away.  But, luckily enough he has friends that cared about him enough to go out and find him.

Okay... maybe that was really cheesy. No, it was really cheesy but I don't care all too much. I have been a grump lately and I know it and readily admit it. I don't know why! Maybe the rose colored glasses are gone and have been replaced with poop-brown ones that I just can't seem to take off. Hopefully it's only a temporary replacement. The person that gets it the worst though is Derek. He has to deal with all my grumpiness, and yet he still loves me at the end of the day.

So while today was blustery in just about every aspect I'm sure a huge storm would have broken out had it not been for Derek and his patience with me. How does he do it? I'll never know.