Dear Girls

This week instead of doing a Dear Boys post (even though I do have some things I'd say), I decided to write a Dear Girls post to all of the amazing girls in my life :)

Dear Steph,

You're a pretty amazing sister, you know that? Thanks for everything you do for me, whether it's bringing me something I forgot at home or just listening to me. I love that we can talk about anything and always understand each other. I love how passionate, spunky and loyal you are. You always know what you want and you're not afraid of it :) Thanks for being overall amazing.
Love,

Michelle

Dear Aubree,

I am so in love with your little boy! You are seriously the cutest little mom in the whole world. You are so genuine, caring, and all around adorable. I love the time we get to spend and catch up with each other's lives. I'm so grateful to have you as one of my very best friends. Thanks for making me feel so important :)

Love,

Michelle

Dear Mckenna,

Mckenna! You're married! Sometimes I still forget :) I think you and Dave are one of my favorite married couples ever :) We've been friends our entire lives, and I'm so grateful for that. You always know what to say, and you always make me feel so special and good about myself. You have the ability to make everyone you talk to feel so loved. I am so blessed to have you in my life!

Love,

Michelle

Dear Megan,

You're the coolest ten-year-old I know, seriously. I love how every time I call home you sing me a ridiculous song while you're finding Mom or Steph. You're so funny and witty, and I love that you love Doctor Who. You are going to be absolutely fabulous in the Nutcracker next month, and I'm so excited to see it. Thanks for being such an awesome little sister.

Love,

Chelle

Dear Kaylee,

I can't believe we've been friends for literally half our lives. I love how no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other it's like no time has past at all. You always know exactly how I feel, and I can talk to you about anything. Thanks for always listening to my stories and for introducing me to Doctor Who :) I love that we always 'get' each other and we can be such nerds together. Bloom is definitely my favorite Pintrerst board :) I look forward to the next 12 years and everything after.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Elina,

Can I just say I think you're great? You are so confident, hilarious, caring, and so thoughtful. I love how you laugh at everything and are so chill all the time. I miss sharing a room and our adventures and chats. Thanks for always having such great advice and always listening :)

Love,

Michelle

Dear Stacy,

Hi roomie! It think you're great :) Thanks for always listening to my stories, even if they're a little ridiculous. Thanks for always trying to solve my problems even when I don't always want a solution :) I love how we can always understand how the other's feeling (especially with regards to boys). I love our late night chats where everything turns ridiculously funny, even when it's not.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Rachelle,

So I've decided you should get a teaching job up here in Logan and move in with me and Stacy. Sounds like a plan? Good :) I miss you so much! I miss our late night chats about anything and everything (especially boys), our cooking adventures, and even our toilet issues, hahaha :) I'm so excited for you to come visit this weekend! I love you tons and am so glad you're one of my best friends.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Rachel,

Sometimes I still can't believe you're married! When did we all grow up? I love the random texts you send me about your cows and chickens :) I love how confident you are and how much you truly care about those around you. You're the roommate I lived with the longest and I definitely miss you! Every time I hear someone say 'undo' I think of you, hahaha.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Kathy,

I miss your face! Seriously, I can't wait until March :) I love that you and I could always talk, and you always understood. Although I only lived with you for two years it really felt like we'd been friends for so much longer. I love our weird craziness and random adventures. I miss playing guitar together and eating all Rachel's Oreo's. I know that you're being a fantastic missionary. The people of Argentina are so blessed to have you.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Heidi,

Chancho!!!! Isn't it sad we're both in Logan and hardly see each other? This is what busy schedules do to us. I miss living with you! We had some good times :) I miss the random dancing and funny conversations. I think you and Brett are adorable, and I'm so happy for you. Thanks for being such a genuine friend.

Love,

Meesh

Dear Paula,

You are seriously so great. Your letter last week made my day! I love reading your emails and I know you're changing so many people's lives for good. I miss our random dance parties, adventures, and late night talks. I love how outgoing and friendly you are. You are such a good friend to everyone and I really wish I was more like you.

Love,
Michelle

Dear Mom,

I genuinely think you're one of the greatest mom's in the world. I'm not sure what I did to be so blessed to have you as my Mom. Thanks for not getting annoyed with all my random phone calls about sewing, cooking, or anything else you always know the answer to. Thanks for always putting us first, even if you'd rather be doing something else. I love how you can seriously do and make anything. I admire you so much and I hope to become more like you.

Love,

Michelle

Family History

This semester I've been called as a Family History Consultant in my ward. This is definitely something I've never done before. While I'm extremely grateful it's not Home Evening (three years in the same calling is a bit long), it is a bit overwhelming. Family History is one of those things I know I should be doing, but really had no idea where to start. My lesson a week and a half ago went well (the manual is really straight forward), minus the fact that the projector cut off the top third of the video so all the people were headless, hahahaha. While the lesson went well, I still didn't know exactly what to do for the 20 minutes of class where we have time to actually work on our own Family History. For my Mom's side and my Dad's mom's side it seems like all the work has been done. For my Dad's Dad's side we don't have any records past my Great-great grandparents. My great-grandparents came over from Croatia and the church where their family records are was destroyed. We also have the problem of not speaking Croatian. I really felt like there wasn't anything for me to do. If I don't know how to do my own Family History, how in the world am I supposed to teach others what to do?

This past Saturday I was invited to a Family History Conference over at the BATC. While a conference from 9-5 didn't sound like the funnest way to spend my Saturday, I knew it was something I needed to do. I asked my mom to come with me so I didn't have to go by myself and be surrounded by a bunch of Senior Citizens :) Overall the Conference was really helpful, though I still don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I did learn some things that I can start doing on my own line. One of the best tips I got was to not look at your direct line. You go to your great-grandparents or even great-great grandparents and start looking at their siblings or other children and make sure their work has all been done. You basically go up your family tree, and then start working out and back down. Right now I'm researching my great grandparents siblings. My great-grandfather has five siblings that have all been sealed to their parents, but we don't have any information on their own spouses and children. It's been really confusing with all the name changes and everything that could have happened to the records, but hopefully something good will come out of it. A friend of mine told me on Sunday (something along the lines of this): That which you persist in doing you become proficient at. I'm just going to keep moving forward and hopefully I'll figure it all out along the way.

Worth Thinking About

"Sometimes, what we think is best for us, isn't always best for the soul. There are things in life (relationships, opportunity, etc...) that I want and may never have, but I'm pretty sure it's God protecting me from myself. I'm starting to become thankful for the gifts that I don't get. :)" - Tyler Ward

I'm pretty sure he's a Mormon and just doesn't know it yet :)

Problem

I've been trying to decide what to be for Halloween. My office dresses up and I want to be something fairly easy, but still cool. I found a costume that I LOVE. There's only one problem with it:

It's a couples costume. But isn't it the super cute? It just wouldn't be nearly as cool to be Mary Poppins without her Chimney Sweep.

Awkward First Date Questions

There are some questions that really shouldn't be asked on a first date. "Why aren't you married yet?" is definitely one of them. Not only is it awkward for the person being asked the question, I also find it a little rude. Marrying young is a fairly common thing in Utah, but that doesn't mean that everyone wants to get married at 19 or is supposed to. The fact that I'm 23 and not married also doesn't make me a marriage hater. Quite the opposite really - I think marriage is fantastic. It's just not something that has happened in my life yet. Marriage is all supposed to be in the Lord's time. The guy that asked me why I wasn't married yet also asked me if I had a deadline of when I want to get married. I told him it was just my goal to not be in the over 30 singles ward. To be honest with myself I would like to be married by 25, which is getting closer all the time. The thing with setting a deadline to be married is that I don't really have much control over it, and if I don't hit the deadline what am I supposed to do? Hate life because I'm not married yet? Well that won't be much fun at all.

I'm pretty sure that the guy that asked me that question on our first date found it weird that I wasn't married yet. He told me all the girls he knows who aren't married are about 19. I told him he needed to stop hanging out with Freshman. I know tons of girls who are over the age of 21 and not married. Out of the four girls in my apartment three of us are at least 22. I also have three former roommates who are 23 and on missions. My friends Rachelle and Jessie are also both 23, and my sister is 22. There is nothing wrong with us because we're not married, and we certainly don't hate marriage. The Lord has an individual plan for each of  us, and we just need to have faith in Him and His timing.

This lovely quote was made by the fabulous Elise over at Elise's Pieces . Check out her blog, she's awesome :)

While I may wonder when I am going to get married, I've had a lot of fun being single and I intend to keep having fun. What's the point of sitting around wishing I was married? That's definitely not going to make anyone want to ask me out, hahaha. And while this date I went on was okay, I really felt like I was in a personal interview for a wife. Awkward. So guys, when you're on a first date with a girl, don't ask her why she's not married yet. You'll basically kill your chances with her.

The View on Top is Worth It

This past Saturday I was invited to go on a hike with a guy in my ward. I met him at home evening and he seemed super nice, so I was definitely excited to go. A 12 mile hike up the Wellsvilles? Awesome!

Did I take into account having a 40-hour a week desk job made for one lazy summer? Nope! I think I went running all of three times this summer. But a cute guy invited me, so I was definitely in.
We left around seven Saturday morning and headed for the Wellsvilles. At first it was just the guy who invited me and his roommate. Everyone else had other plans (Homecoming Parade, sleeping in, etc.) but I didn't mind the small group. These two guys are pretty mucn expert hikers. The guy that invited me hiked over 200 miles this summer! (Of course I found this out after I went). The first part wasn't too bad, but then it got pretty steep. And not that it was just steep, but it was constantly uphill. Apparently the Wellsvilles have some of the most dramatic inclines of mountains in the West. It was three miles up to the Saddle, and I was so ready to be done right there. There were honestly a couple of times where I thought I might die on the trail. Up on the saddle we ended up running into a girl we all knew and a friend she was hiking with. She had left her car in Sardine canyon the night before and they were hiking over to it. We decided to join up with them and then have her give us a ride back to our car in Mendon. After the saddle we were able to hike along the edge of the mountain for a while and it was pretty flat. At this point I was feeling pretty good. Flat, I do really well with flat. Down hill is my next favorite after flat :). After we got around the mountain we had to hike up to the Cone, which just happens to be the highest point of the mountain range. It was so steep! It was ridiculous and I thought about telling them to leave me. After several stops and telling them I was going to die, we made it to the top. And you know what? The view was definitely worth it.

It was really quite incredible to be able to see the entire valley from the highest point of the Wellsville mountains. It was the perfect day to do it - the colors were gorgeous and it wasn't too hot.

I feel like this hike relates a lot to life. Sometimes it really sucks. Sometimes you think you're going to kill over on the trail right there. Sometimes you see the mountain in front of you and you can't imagine going one up one more steep step. But if you try and don't give up and just keep walking, it'll be worth it. You'll always have friends along the way encouraging you to keep going, and even pushing you up the really steep parts :) But once you make it up there it's all worth it, and it feels great to be able to tell people what you accomplished. You can point to that mountain and be like, Hey, I climbed that! True story :)

If I ever go again I'll just make sure I've actually been running and in shape. This hike was definitely a great motivator for that :)