Babies and Blessings

So, in the last couple of weeks, two of my greatest friends (Bethers and Leash-face) have been blessed with beautiful baby girls…good job popping on St. Pat’s Day, Leash. I’m definitely proud. Haha. Ever since little Elsie Rae was born and then followed by Addie almost a week later, I’ve been able to reflect on some of the greatest blessings in my life.

Obviously, my family was the first thing to come to my mind. They are seriously the greatest family I could ever imagine. I’ve learned so much from them and felt so much love from them, everyday of my life. One of the greatest things about my family (not including our supreme love for board games and all of our inherent abilities to unknowingly cheat…something we got from Grandmama, for sure) is that they are stubborn. Why is that good you ask? It’s plenty good for lots of reasons…the biggest one right now is that despite my insisting that I didn’t want them to spend all the time and money to fly out in April for my graduation ceremony that I finally decided to be a part of thanks to some coaxing from my coworkers, they are all coming with happy hearts. I know its definitely not in the budget or time frame for any of them and I haven’t heard one murmur of complaint except for when I reminded them how long the ceremony will be since its all of December’s grads AND April’s grads. Heheh I just love you guys and I’m so excited to see y’all next month.


Another huge blessing in my life are my friends. Jen has come back from Chile after almost a year of hearing all of her stories of warmth and good times, so Emily and I went to visit her this weekend and it was so fun to have the three of us together again after a years time. I’ve thought a lot about my friends that I have now and ones that I’ve had in the past that I may not keep in the best touch with, and I have been so blessed to have so many wonderful people come into my life. I have learned so much from all of them about myself and seriously, some of my favorite memories in life are those that happen when I’m with my friends. Provo has felt like home now for quite some time and I know that that has to do with the people who are constantly making me feel wanted and needed. My BYU/Provo experience wouldn’t be anything without y’all. I couldn’t possibly name all of you because it would take far too long and I know I would run the risk of missing someone…but you all know who you are. I love y’all bad and wouldn’t trade any of our moments, good or bad, for anything. Y’all are the peaches to my cottage cheese! 

Also, I have a job! Its not full time or anything that I hope to keep doing for the rest of my life, but for about a month there, I was jobless and it was a very scary experience. The economy crept up on me and almost let me loose…but I’m so lucky to have supervisors and a boss who really care about what I have to offer here at PBSI and I’ve had so many wonderful learning opportunities in my last 3 ½ years of working here. I’ve learned so much and I’m so grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given because of working here….getting to present our research at conferences, getting to conduct my own research, getting published, learning more about research in general…it’s been great and despite the sucky times of transcribing and data entry for hours on end, I love it here. They are my third family away from home and they’re constantly looking out for me and have my best interest at heart.

The last thing that I’m going to mention is my calling. I’ve been very fortunate to be the Relief Society President of my ward for the last two years which is a very unique blessing as usually, the Presidents are only kept in for around two, MAYBE four semesters at a time before they are released. It has been one of the hardest experiences of my life but definitely one of the most rewarding. Not only have I been able to become very close with a very large number of the girls, but I have been able to experience new levels of learning how to receive revelation for myself and those under my stewardship. It has been the best two years of my life for that reason. Going to the temple at least once a week, sometimes more, has been so wonderful. And each time I went, I was always impressed about something…whether it was a specific person that needed my help or something about a lesson, or an activity…you know the drill. Its been so cool to pray for guidance and see how well it has come into my life. It has happened two specific times that I can think of where I have made one decision and felt impressed to go another direction and its been awesome to see how the Lord has guided me in my choices (both personal and within relief society) and how they have definitely worked out for the better in ways that I never could have imagined. I’m going to be so sad when it’s all over. Seriously, I can’t think of a better experience that I’ve ever had in my life. On Sunday, we were singing “Nearer My God, To Thee” in acapela for our music appreciation number and after the second verse started, I just completely lost it. I felt the spirit overwhelmingly strong and the Love that the Lord has for each of the sisters was so strong. It made me love them even more which I didn’t think was possible. They are seriously like angels in my life and I’m so thankful for those experiences that I’ve had thus far.