It's Time

I love this song.

Time goes by a lot faster the older you get. At least for me. It seems like this semester just started two weeks ago and now there's only a week and a half left before finals! What the heck!? I wish it would have gone slower. I like this point I'm at in life. I feel like it's ending for some reason. It really isn't. I probably just feel this way because instead of taking actual classes next semester I'm doing an internship. So instead of hanging around cool, hip college students I get to hang around old, boring, old people. But it will be good and I'm excited for it non the less.

Today I finished my Final paper for English. It is such a relief to get such a big thing on your to-do list done. Now I just need to play catch up in my online class. (two things I learned this semester: never take an online class because I'm such a bad procrastinator and don't take classes at seven in the morning. It's so not worth it.)

 We set up all of our Christmas decorations. I love it when it gets dark and we turn on all the Christmas lights. It just makes me so happy! I love this time of year because of many reasons. 1. It's the time we celebrate Christ's birth. 2. Christmas decorations. 3. Christmas music. 4. Snow. 5. Baking goodies.

 Do you see that? That is all my finger. I went to bed with a band aide on my finger because a ferocious feline scratched me. And when I took it off in the morning by finger looked like I held it in water all night long. I was afraid it would never get better, but it did. But it looks nasty huh?

 This here is the aforesaid ferocious feline. I am not a cat person, with the exception to this here kitty cat. His name is General Giggles (He is my bro and sis-in-laws cat. They named him) I like to call him GG for short. This is his most favorite position to sit in. Ha. Just joking. He was just doing what cats do and then paused for a moment like that so I took a picture. I just wish I were that flexible. We watched him while Jeff and Ariel were out of town for Thanksgiving. And right now I don't have any nieces or nephews to hold and cuddle so to make up for that I wrapped GG up in a blanket and pretended he was a baby. It's great. He'll make due until Russell and Leighann's baby comes.

My birthday was last week. And do you want to know what I did during the day? I hung out with my mother and father at their place of employment. It was so fun. At first I sat in my Mom's cubicle and watched her work on her computer. Then I upgraded and went to my dad's office and watched him talk to the media. Then my dad and I went around doing parkour around the office. It was a jolly good time. It was great to because, you see my Mom and Dad are both government employees so where they work, everyone there gets paid by through taxes and since it was my birthday I felt that it was only fair that they all give me some money since some of it comes from my taxes (although now that I think about it I haven't actually paid taxes yet, but I will this year so it still counts) anyway I just went around telling them what I just explained and they had no problem giving me their money. 

Yeah. I wish. But I did sing a song about it in the parking lot. My mother was mortified. I was just having a jolly good time. 

So as some of you all know I am probably the most paranoid person who ever walked the earth. You see when I call my mom or dad and they don't answer, after multiple attempts, I assume that they have crashed and are dead or have been abducted or something along those lines. But now we all got his app called Life 360 that tracks where you are through your cell phone GPS. So now I know exactly where they are and I don't have to worry. It's the greatest thing ever. 

Well I think I've rambled enough. Hope you all are having a wonderful day and life. 

Random Ramblings

I've been sitting at home doing absolutely nothing productive and it's giving me one of those lazy day headaches (do you ever get those? I usually get these weird headaches when I have a day that I waste by doing nothing productive or eating too much sugar). Anyways to prevent one of these from coming on I'm blogging. Good remedy.

Today I took a test for my PoliSci class, and for the past to tests I haven't done so hot, but as I was taking this one I knew almost everything. And I actually got a decent score that I can be proud of! Yay! Took me long enough into the semester, but late is better than never right?

So I bought this screen protector for my phone but for some reason I'm terrified to put it on. Weird, I know.

I'm getting pretty stressed seeing as there are roughly two and a half weeks left in the semester! Agh! I'm freaking out because being the great procrastinator that I am, I put off my online class. So over the break next week I'll be reading my Health textbook with all my heart. But I'm glad the semesters almost over. I need a break from getting up at 5 in the a.m. every day.

Wanna hear a good song? Well listen to this. It is great and fills me with thanks for our Savior. I hope all of you out there realize how great of a blessing the Atonement really is and I hope you realize how much Christ has really done for us. If you want to really understand all aspects of the Atonement go here and sign up to take Repentance and Forgiveness with Brother Durfey. You will not regret it, I PROMISE!!

Next week I'll be turning 19. I don't want to ever be older than 19. So for the next year I'll be working on how to freeze my ageing. Then I'll be 19 forever and I won't get old.

I feel such happiness inside me right now and I don't know why. I just feel so thankful for my life. Every aspect of it, good and bad. This past little while I've realized how much I have and how much the Lord's hand is in my life. Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself and so everyday I am so thankful for his hand and guidance in my life. With it I know my life will work out in a more perfect way than I could have ever imagined.

My youngest sister, Emma has been playing out in the snow a lot with her friends lately. And she doesn't have her own pair of snow boots. So what does she use instead? Jeff's old pair of snow boots that are too big for even my feet. I tried to take a picture today, because she looks like a clown, but she realized I was just trying to take a picture to tease her so she ran and hid. What a smart girl.

Last night I had the nuttiest dream. It was so far from reality.

I'm interning for my Mom come January, and I'm so pumped. I told her that I'm going to do such a great job that they'll fire her and hire me. She argued that she has more experience. I then argued back that she's closer to death than I am. Then Susie countered that I could die any minute. I told her she'd better knock on wood. She didn't. So if I die unexpectedly you know why.

On that note, I'm done for now. I doubt anyone made it all the way through this post, cause it's so long. But if you did props to you. You're the BEST!

Political Rants

I'm getting very frustrated with some of the things that I'm reading on Facebook about the election, because of my bias. And I need to say something about them, but I don't want to add the the ruckus on Facebook. So I'll just blog about it.

First off. Canada may be more socialist than America is right now. But people aren't wanting to flee there because of those kinds of issues, I think it's more because of what the economy is now and what it's going to become. I'm not going to lie. I kinda want to disappear for the next four years, but I know that that's impractical.
I love what JFK said in his inaugural speech. He said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". We need to do our best to secure our futures. America is beginning to depend on the government too much. It's part of the reason we're in a financial mess.
We just need to learn to actually do stuff for ourselves. I know it's hard in today's society where we have so many conveniences that will do stuff for us, all we have to do is push a button. Instead we need to go out and do. Make something of ourselves. We can't depend on the government. We have to be the ones to make a difference.

I'm not very thrilled that Obama is President, but I'll support him non the less. I'll continue to pray for him and hope that things don't go horribly wrong for this wonderful country. I'm a little scared for what the next four years holds for me and everyone else. I'm scared for the kind of life I'm going to have because of the economy. But I have faith that everything will work out in the end. It may be a long journey to the end, but we'll get there!

Don't Think

I've been very overwhelmed with life this past week. Things seem to be happening so fast for me, when in reality they really aren't. As a result I've felt overwhelmed and just wanted to sit in my room and think, but I don't want to just think because thinking is what got me into this overwhelmed state I've been in. I over think everything and then assume the worst as a result. Today though I was able to feel some peace about certain things on my mind. Now I'm trying to just not think. My Institute teacher said we need to have firm minds and soft hearts. So when I say I'm going to try to not think I mean I'm not going to let irrational thoughts enter my mind and let them ruin everything. I think I'm really going to enjoy not thinking. We'll see how it goes :)

Life Epiphany

Today was an answer to a prayer that I never knew I had... kinda. It was more of an answer to many prayers in an obscure kind of a way. In institute today we were talking about faith, but before we got into that we got started on fear. The girl in the class who started this conversation was most definitely inspired.
It helped me to realize that I have had certain prayers answered I was just afraid to act on my answers or even to accept the answer. It also made me realize that my second guessing myself is just the fear that Satan uses to try to deter us from what is good and right for each of us.
The whole time I had the "burning in by bosom" kind of feeling and then we read the scripture that says something to the effect of "I will let you know if things are good or right with a burning in your bosom". And it was so awesome because I sat there thinking about things that I'd had fear in lately and felt this "burning in my bosom" and I knew that these things were good and right and that I just need to practice faith and have patience and don't fear. Even right now I feel again that these things are good and right. I love how much God's hand is in my life and I can feel his love for me!

Timing

I sure do love these people!

I wish I was eloquent with words. I have so many thoughts in my mind that I never know how to put to words. And I always want to write them down so I'll remember them but I can never find just the right words. Plus if I was eloquent with words writing papers for school would be a lot easier. Right now I've got to write a paper about of all the classes I'm taking which do I feel is unnecessary. And it's kinda hard to write this paper because I feel like all the classes I'm taking are necessary. 

I really, really, really, really want to see this movie. It looks like a good story line, and plus I've only heard good things about it. 

Squanto (my car) has been filthy lately. He's needed a car wash quite desperately for a while. So the other day I took him through a car was and it did nothing. At all. All the dust and everything was still on there. It was weird and annoying. And then yesterday it poured rain so now he's in even more of a need for a car wash. But I don't care any more. As long as the windows are clean then I'm content. 

So now that I can actually vote I'm realizing that my vote doesn't really count for anything at all. So there's really no reason to vote. Don't get me wrong I'm going to vote just so I can get the sticker that says "I voted" but my vote won't count for anything. My Dad says that everyone needs to vote just to back of what the Electoral College for your state voted but that doesn't even really matter because they can vote however they want whether it goes with or against the common consent of the state. But I don't know that's just my opinion. 

Lately I've been hearing a lot to just trust in the Lord's timing. And I really didn't want to trust in the Lord's timing because I don't really know His timeline for me or if it's what I want. But recently I just decided that I was actually going to trust in His timing and live my life with faith that things will work out in His way and in His time and in the long run I'll be happy no matter what. Once I consciously decided to trust in the Lord's timing it seems like things are finally starting to happen for me. And its wonderful. I just took a leap of faith and right away I'm seeing the wonderful repercussions. And the Lord really does know what's best for me, I may think that I do but in reality I have no idea. So I'm thankful for all the different people and things that lead me to take a leap of faith and trust in the Lord's timing. 

Opportunities

Yesterday my idea of my future began to be questioned. My plan for life was to live it, and if I got married before I was 21, then great. But if not I would go on a mission. My heart wasn't necessarily set on serving a mission nor was it against serving a mission. Then when President Monson announced that young women can serve a mission at age 19 I was overwhelmed with a wave of emotions. First I felt gratitude for the blessing this would be in many peoples lives. My mind went to a girl in my institute class who just this last week asked our teacher how soon girls could turn in their papers. She's only 19 so I felt bad that she would have to wait a couple more years, then I heard the announcement and I was happy for her. I also felt shock. I'm going to be 19 in one and a half months. If I want to go on a mission I can start my papers today! And I also felt some confusion. Should I go on a mission right now, or wait a few more years to see how different things work out. 

My parents were gone at my siblings cross country meet when the announcement was made so when they got back home my Mom came in and said "Rachel! You can go on a mission this year!" But did I want to go on a mission this year? After the first session I went on Facebook and saw a whole bunch of my friends who were already making their decision so easily. I was still confused, and I felt like I had to make a decision that day. So throughout the day I contemplated both of my options and both seemed like they would be right for me. So I prayed about it before I went to bed hoping that by the end of today I would have my answer. 

When I woke up I just decided that I needed to make a decision and then ask the Lord if it was the right one. So I decided I was going to serve a mission, and inquired of the Lord and waited for my answer. 

During Elder Holland's talk this morning I got my answer. Let me preface the answer I got with some background information. When I received my Patriarchal Blessing I was sure that I would someday go on  a mission. I hoped desperately that it meant a couples mission, because to be honest I hope by the time I am 21 to be married. So I didn't really want to have to serve a mission when I was 21. I wasn't anti-mission I was just more pro-marriage (I know I'm so old fashioned.) And now I have the opportunity to serve while I'm 19! 

So do I take the chance and serve now, or wait while and see where I am in life. Then in Elder Holland's talk he talked about judgement day and how he believes Christ will ask "Did you love me?" Well I know that I do love him, but would my life prove that? And then I realized that if I really do love Christ I can sacrifice one and a half years of my life to go and feed his sheep. It's the least I can do, after all He has done for me. So I'm going to seize this opportunity and get my paper's started as soon as possible. I'm eager to get out and share the gospel that has been such a blessing in my life, and to be a part of history. I'm also very excited for the opportunity that this provides to go to the Temple! Never in a million years did I think I'd be going through the Temple at age 19.

I know that the change in age for mission service is inspired. Like President Holland said in the Press Conference yesterday, they made this change because the work is hastening. I'm excited for the great privilege I have to help in the hastening of the Gospel. And I'm ready to get out and serve!