ah.. december 31, 2009.
the last day of 2009.
as i promised earlier.. heres my "reflecting on 2009" blog..
every year, my sweet parents and i ring in the new year by going to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, seeing a movie, and spending the rest of the evening at one of our friends parties counting down til midnight and shooting fireworks. i love this tradition alot.. last year was our first year since 1999 to change this tradition.. and that kind of makes me sad.. but i had a wonderful new years last year..
we had already decided we wouldn't be seeing a movie last year because there wasnt one we were interested in. we went out to our traditional dinner at Outback, and our wonderful friends, the Donaldson's, joined us :) afterwords my parents headed off to some party.. and i went to a Mormon dance. for real. a mormon dance. every other month or so all the stakes (?) in the area and have a dance. and it was SO much fun.. i went with sarah and james and all of my wonderful other Mormon friends i'd met throughout the year. and we had a wonderful time.. and it was a wonderful start to the new year..
2009 moved on with more of senior year.. only now i was a second semester senior. best thing ever! i'm trying to remember specific things that happened early on in the year.. but i'm not having much luck..
i got the chance to go to washington dc in april with my incredible choir.. such a fun trip! we got to sing at the lincoln memorial and the national cathedral, as well as touring some wonderful museums. however.. best part of the trip was arlington national cemetery. not only was in an incredibly moving trip.. but i also was blessed with the chance to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier along with three of my fellow choir members.. SUCH an incredibly moving experience.
a week after i came home from washington was my senior presentation.. also called The Yellow Rose Ball.. oh man. starting my sophomore year i dealt with the drama that is Junior Guild, especially my senior year. Senior year i was given the great opportunity to be 1st vice president of this organization.. something i thought would be a rewarding experience, but really just took years off mine -and my sweet mother's- life. But yellow rose ball made it all worth it in the end.. i had the huge poofy dress, a fabulous escort, and some sweet friends there to support me.. it was a wonderful evening :)
i guess the next big event after that was june 6... graduation! the day i'd been looking forward to since i first began schooling. i dont really know what all to write about graduation.. i think anything i say will end up sounding cliche.. i mean, it was a wonderful afternoon. i had a lovely dress on, covered up by that hideous blue gown and cap.. and of course, i was a nervous wreck. i was nervous about falling or tripping or just looking stupid. i was nervous because this was truly ending my highschool career.. however.. favorite moment of graduation had to be when i was about to walk on stage. i was in line, right by sweet jackie reyman, and i was shaking and i look out into all my fellow graduates.. and i see sarah and phil. they were in top 10% so they were sitting on the first or second row.. and they got my attention and just grinned at me. i gave a little wave and blew a kiss and breathed a huge sigh of relief. they totally calmed my nerves right before i walked across that stage.. such sweet friends i have! and then i walked across the stage (without falling!!) and that was it. i was done..
moving right along with 2009.. uplift! uplift is the summer camp our church youth group attends every year. i love uplift. love love loveee it! its a great chance to be myself and just experience God in a way i never get to at home. but this year at uplift was definitely special... on june 16 i gave my life to Christ and got baptized! okay.. it was my second time. but i really felt like it was something God was calling me to do.. its not like i didnt think the first time "didnt take" or something like that.. its just.. i feel like i didnt really know what i was doing.. i just did it because it was something i knew i was expected to do. but this summer at uplift, i really felt like God was calling me.. and it was great :)
right after uplift came my absolute favorite week of my year. honduras. every year the juniors and seniors at our church go on a mission trip to tegucigalpa, honduras to build houses and work with some local churches and orphanages. i LOVE this trip more than anything. this year was a bit crazy though.. we spend the first two days of the trip building 6 houses and the rest of the trip doing VBS's and visiting schools and such. well this year, we got a little bit of news one evening. we were having a church service with one of the local churches when one of our chaperone's gets a phone call.. as soon as the sermon is over we were rushed to our buses (such a scary feeling.. everyone was just saying "get to the bus! get to the bus!" and we had no idea why.." and we find out there is a military coup about to take place. and we are right there in the capital city. i dont know exactly what happened government wise, but apparently the prez was doing something he shouldnt have been doing and the military decided to step in. the next day or so was crazy.. we just kept waiting to hear if it was safe for us to stay or if we could even get out if we tried.. we decided to cut the trip short and come home, which i now realize was a very wise decision.. but we were so bummed about it.. but we still had an incredible time while we were there.. i really wish i could go into detail about how much this trip means to me.. but that could literally go on forever.. i really love honduras.. and i really think that God has something planned in my future with Honduras.. guess we'll wait and see :)
after we got home from honduras i spent the rest of my summer at home! i got the chance to work for a company downtown-- such a neat experience! i was the receptionist for the company and i absolutely loved it! but my time there didnt last long, because soon enough it was time for me to head off to abilene!
thats right. i started college. talk about an emotional rollercoaster! my first semester was absolutely CRAZY and i cant believe its already over! my classes were hard, well math was hard. but overall, it was such a wonderful semester. i've made some wonderful new friends, and i really think i've grown up alot. i made a 4.0!! sorry.. i hate hate hate when people brag.. but i'm SO extremely proud of that gpa.. i've NEVER made all a's.. ever! and so i'm pretty stinking proud out of my mind! so.. overall, pretty dang great semester :)
and then i came home... Christmas was wonderful. I'm so so blessed by the people i'm surrounded by. seriously. the donaldson's came over for christmas dinner, along with the family that's always here. it was such a wonderful afternoon/evening. i'm so so blessed..
and that brings us up to date! we went back to our new years traditions-- Outback Steakhouse and a movie. This year we saw The Blindside.. SOO INCREDIBLE! gosh. sandra bullock is incredibly incredible, and oh golly the little boy is just PRECIOUS. i really want to adopt him. and after the movie we went over to a friend's house and rang in the new year by playing games and watching the ball drop :) great evening with great friends..
soo.. it's been a pretty incredible year. hopefully 2010 is just as wonderful, if not even more wonderful! i hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday..
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