Noah's Going on a Mission!

Today was a big day.
A great day.
A monumental day.
An exciting day.
An anxious day.
Noah, my long distance boyfriend of 20 months, got his mission call this morning.

We had been anticipating this day since Wednesday this week and it was very much worth it.
It's probably a good thing that it came on a Saturday because I could not even handle myself in school the almost 9 hours we waited to open the call.
I was over babysitting six children and they probably had to watch over my physical and mental health more than I had to watch over theirs.
Finally, it was time to open the call.
All the six children I was watching were gathered around my side, standing on their tip toes trying to hear Noah talk to me over the phone.
Everyone in his family that was local was there in his living room.
All of work.
All from their homes.
All from down the road.
To watch Noah open his calling to the Montana Billings Mission!!!

I really can't lie.
My first instinct was "Hahahaa where the heck is that. I forgot Montana existed. And all the 600 people who live in Montana. How disappointing for him. Hahaa."
But as I got to thinking, Montana has got to be beautiful!
It's cold.
It's elevated.
It's bigger than Statesboro.
It's where he is personally needed by the Lord!
I got to looking on Google and saw that Billings is beautiful!
It has a tiny cute skyline surrounded by canyons and hills and mountains!
I looked on Pinterest to start hopping on some cute Montana art projects and learned that Montana consists of whiskey.
Bullet framings.
Spur earrings.
And green grass.
I'll have to tap into my well of creativity and depict and translate the state of MT through my artist brain.
I am so excited for him.
To send me letters.
To send me pictures.
To receive all my mittens and scarves and blankets I will learn to make.
To serve the friendly and the notsofriendly folk of Montana.
I am so excited to be a missionary's girlfriend.
I am so so proud of Noah and have faith he will be safe and taken care of by his generous Father in Heaven.
He will be so blessed and so will his family for his righteous desires.
I love him so so much!!

Temple Treasures.

I am positive that my favourite place on Earth is a temple.
Even better than Sea World.
I don't even have to be inside the temple for it to be my favourite.
Even the outside is magnificent to be around.
This weekend, we had a youth temple trip. These are easily some of my favourite days of the year. Yes, I woke up at 5:46 AM on a Saturday. Yes, I attend early morning seminary and wake up at 4:22 AM (something strange about me is that I hate when alarms are set for a common time, 5:00, 5:25, I just don't like numbers that end in five or zero. Or an odd  number. I, am an odd number.) But yeah, Saturday is my only day to sleep in, and it is sooo worth giving up for the temple.

I am certain that every time I go to the temple, I take away something different. Last temple trip was the first time we have ever been physically handed the names and it was incredible to learn about the people who have passed on that we were doing work for. I had one person, from Essex, England who had been waiting since 1532 for her work to be done. I had other names from Uruguay, Italy, Ukraine, Pennsylvania, England, and other countries all over the world. This time, I only had names from Hungary, which is still so neat to me. It was truly a feeling of such important work being done.

This time I went, I gained a new love for the blessing of a temple building, and one being only three hours away. The temple grounds just have an enlighteninng and clean feeling about them, and I love to be surrounded by beautiful white facades and fences and landscaping. Beautiful stained glass windows and shining glass doors. It gives me such a peaceful feeling. With how hectic and stressed life is, it is so hard to find the simple meditation that relates to the spirit of the temple.

Noah is soon awaiting his mission call, his papers have been in and everyone is saying the call will come this week. I am so so grateful for the opprotunity he has to serve a mission, and the desire! I honestly envy him being able to take out his endowments and seeing more of what the temple has to bless him with. I am so proud of him and can't wait to officially be a missionary's girlfriend. A waiting, LOYAL one, at that!;D

Temples are where I want to be, and I am living a life that will lead me to the temple always. I am so so excited to be a growing Latter-day Saint girl and approaching big steps in life, that are getting me closer to the day I am married in the temple. I am so thankful for all the work that is done, the workers and the missionaries and preisthood power to operate a temple.

Seriously, who isn't happy at the temple?

Thoughts For Thursday.

Thoughts for the 17th day of January:
1. College is DUMB.
1 1/2. I don't know what I'm doing.
2. That economics test was harder than I thought it would be.
3. I am crazy jealous of Noah.. who is in Alabama, playing in snow...
4. College is still dumb.

Love,
Cindy.

Admit it, you needed this, too.

2012: That's A Wrap!!

I can not believe that another year has gone by so so sooo quickly!

Time is flying by so fast! It's as if it was just yeasterday I was a sophomore thinking how happy I was to no longer be a freshman. Now I have just finished my first semester of my Senior year and it's been a blast. 2012 has been so good to me, I'm so sad to see it leave, but I know there are FOR SURE.. MUCH better things to come!! Here's some my favourite things 2012 gave to me!

1. Valentines Day with Noah! This was the first Valentine's Day that I haven't hated, and was given something by someone other than my mom, lol.

2. ARTsFesT 2012! This one picture reall just wraps it up.. it was just soooo, hot. Haha but so much fun, this is one of my favourite things that comes to GSU during the spring!

3. Spring Break in Alabama with Noah! This was easily the best week of my life andI loved every minute of it, whether I was healthy or sick, because I was both, lol. I could put every picture up on here but I'll just post some of my favourites.

4. Mormon Prom! This is my first and last prom and so Noah and I met up in Atlanta and went to a giiiant Prom put on for LDS youth. Before hand, we met up at the temple in Atlanta for a lunch date on temple grounds, the sweetest!!

5. EFY 2012. This was such such such a good year at EFY. I spent it with my best friend who lives in Atlanta, so we don't get to see each other that often and we bonded so much, and grew so much closer! We even faced a few fears and took a big chance and..just... I need to blog about our miracle at EFY sometime. EFY was amazing and I loved spending it with Peyton, I am so grateful for the lovely week I had with her!

6. My 17th Birthday was wonderful! Noah cme down because it was also our official one year anniversary and we went to Savannah! I loved loved loveddd it! It's easily a favourite places of ours to go!

7. I got my Personal Progress done!!:D

8. Halloween. Halloween is my favourite holiday and I spent it wonderfully with my three best friends!

9. MY ACT SCORE. I spent all year taking 6 tests to get my desired score of a 21. Here's the proof!!

10. General stupid fun. Everyone needs a lot of this jammed in your year!



 2012 has been lovely, but like I said, I am even more excited for 2013! Graduation, Noah's mission, (WHICH THE PAPERS HAVE JUST BEEN TURNED IN WOOOO!) And so many other excting things to be done! I love life and am happy living it! Happy New Year to all!

Dear Haley,

Dear Haley,
Happy First Anniversary that you've been up in perfect heaven! Sure, we all miss you down here but we're happy you're in the most beautiful place imaginable.
Today has actually gone okay. This morning at 1 AM, Vivi and I made sporadic plans to go to your house at 6 in the morning, when the blaze had started one year ago, just because I am that morbid, I suggested it be done. I was just gonna wake up at 5:30 and leave my parents a note telling them where I'd be and just walk out. But as soon as my alarm woke me up I realized I just couldn't handle the trip and the plans were off.
Hopefully, that arrangement fell under the excuse of "It's the thought that counts", haha.

Many memories have been on my mind today. The memory of one year ago, when Vivi, Katy, and I went to visit your home five hours after the fire, when the grass was still wet with water from the fire trucks and the smell of smoke and ash was still pugnent down the entire street. I remember how the wreath was sitting still and perfectly untouched on Sue's window. How our class t-shirt was hanging out your window. There were lots of sad sights and sounds that day. Lots of loving hugs from distraught friends were given. A sense of unity fell upon all of the community. All of Bulloch County's hearts were full.

But today, like I said, went fairly well.
I'm happy for you that a few weeks ago, you recieved twenty new little angels for friends that were all from Newtown, Conn. I bet tey alllll just adore you and Sue. And your mother's chocolate chip pancakes, oooo, yum!
I have a new friend Rachel who is in our Senior class that moved here this summer. I know you would love her! She has been wondering all about you and asks me what you're like a lot. Tonight, the two of us went to Sweetheart Circle, in the very same spot we had our picnic. I lit two candles, one for you and one for Sue, and told Rachel alllll about you darling girls. At the end of the longgg night of talking, I could totally tell that she is so jealous for not getting to know you in person.
I mean, hey! I would be, too!
I could really feel you there, Haley. I kept telling Rachel that I felt like there are other people here at the circle, and of course, no one was. I got in the car and realized that there was a huge possibility that it was you two. I was so moved by tonight, thank you for being there with us today, and every other day.

Haley, I miss you. SO much! As I told Rachel all about you, I missed your hugs, your Just Dance skills, your obssession with Glee, your goofy and crazy cute laugh, I miss your kindness, and your asking if I'd like to be in your group when the teacher would announce group work, and I'd sigh with worry about not having a partner. You were always there, and I miss that to an extreme! I miss your gorgeous genuine smile, your bluntness and silliness. I love you so much and I am so happy for you, and so proud of you for getting all of your Earthly work done and advancing to Heaven! I can't wait to see you again, angel! Save me one of your world-famous hugs. I assume you're still giving them out to everyone you meet<3
RIP.

Christmas 2012! The Best!

I'm pretty positive that this Christmas is the best Christmas of them all.
Along with the best Christmas Eve!!
We had Christmas dinner (I had cucumber pizza, as for everyone else, turkey.) and then all ganged up in our cars to drive around the city and look at Christmas lights on people's houses!
In our car, it was me, my aunt Jennifer, her 10 year old daughter Paige, and my 10 year old brother Drew.
I don't know how this all came up, but we thought it would be funny to teach the kids what a Chinese Fire Drill is, and do it at random stop signs and red lights. So we pulled our car in front of the ones with the rest of our family in them and preformed our routine and it turned out to be hilarious to see the little ones laugh and run uncontrollably around a car as fast as they could and run into each other. Oh, it was hilarious. Every time. Hahahah, we deemed it a new (cool people in the)family tradition!
We came home and talked about Jesus' birth and watched the season's Mormon Messages.

On Christmas morning, everyone showed up at the house at 7:30 and we opened presents until 10:30! Talk about a big family!
After we all dispersed and ooooed and ahhhhed at our gifts, my best friend and I had our Christmas hangs!
Allison Bryant has been my best friend for 13 years and we didn't let me moving end our friendship!
We actually went to the very place where our friendship was birthed, the Dr. Phillips Elementary School playground.
There we swamy and talked and caught up with each other while also reminiscing about when we were in primary school with each other.
Who liked who, what pretend games we used to play on what pieces of playground equipment, it was moving at the same time as we talked about our worries for college and how we will be graduating in only five months.
Time goes by like crazy, and I'm so grateful for our friendship that have lasted us our whole lives.
After that, we went to Starbucks and I enjoyed my nice peppermint HOT CHOCOLATE, lol, and then we went to another playground at our secret place I can not reveal over the Internet. We found a ratty soccer ball and played a cute pick up passing game.
Soon the day ended and the next day came.

The day after Christmas, we got up at 6 AM to go shopping.
I got Christmas gifts for Noah and really super cute pairs of Forever21 earrings, for me of course! I really didn't have much luck shopping for me! I found everything on my Orlando Shopping List that I had been building up (because the shopping back home and even in Savannah is a suckfest) but found everything in every other size but mine. My most treasured find was a pair of corduroy wine coloured skinny jeans, that were on sale for $13.99 that came in every size but mine. A crying shame, I tell you.
I found everything perfectly for Noah though, and that is really what I needed this trip! It's only one more week till I see him! Words can not express my happiness and overwhelming excitement!
Now I'm blogging from the passenger seat of our fully loaded van and we're on our way back to Georgia. I still have so many things to do! Good Christmas, good Christmas, and I hope yours was, too!:D

8 Orlando Lovings

Whilst sitting upon my grandma's vintage couch, I came to really ponder on all the last few days' adventures. I started to think of all the things I am reunited with that I absolutely love, wether it be experiences, sounds, sights, or even Florida smells. Just because I'm a list kinda person, these are all the things I love that I have collected since I arrived home in Orlando....

1. I love how in Orlando, when you look up at any intersection, you don't see only one stoplight, but a huge arrangement of five or six or seven to direct huge roads of several lanes. It's the prettiest at night with streetlights and a busy bustle of car headlights shining in all your mirrors.

2. I love how in Orlando, the weather is predictable and consistent! It's either sunny, sunny, or sunny with a light jacket!

3. I love how in Orlando, old Walmart workers aren't stereotyped as weird drug lord looking people. They're regular looking people who live happy lives behind the register and aren't afraid to be friendly!

4. I love how in Orlando, you can leave the front door open for a bug-free windy breeze!

5. I love how in Orlando, there are buildings all around! Buildings and water fountains. I'm in love with water fountains. They're everywhere! No wasted space, no forrest, no brown ponds, or tree colonies or splatters of nature.

6. I love how in Orlando, you can go out shopping and the minority of languages you hear are English. LOVE.

7. I love how in Orlando, there are whole foods markets, world markets, fresh markets, only ten minutes away.

8. Need it really say it? DISNEY! SEA WORLD! and UNIVERSAL!

I love Orlando! This morning, i made a sweet tasting spa water! It took 8 cups of water, a thin sliced medium cucumber, one large lemon, and ten mint leaves!
You refrigerate it over night, or at least four or five hours, and drink it throughout the day to get your wiggy full glasses! The best part about being the only healthy eater/consumer in the family is that I get everything!
Lead by example, right?
And I'm so happy it's Christmas Eve! Even moooore of my family is now coming into town! Still blogging and sitting on the couch, I just observed the following conversation held be my two great grandparents! Here are some snippets:

My great grandparents:
"Great grandma: i like this chair.
Great grandpa: lets tske it home with us.
Great grandma: i dont need it home, i need it now. I like this chair.
Great grandpa: yeah you do have a lot of chairs.
Great grandma: i like using your chairs, theyre comfier, hehe.
Great grandpa: im glad you like my chairs.
Great grandma: wow..look at all those wires coming from the computers."

"Great grandpa: Linda, did you read all those books?!
Grandma: No, dad, those are all movies. DVD cases.
Great grandpa: are not...."

Haha! Merry Christmas everyone!!