A Smidge of Appreciation.

                           My blogging consistency needs some serious work. Hello friends and family members! Want to know something glorious? The sound of laughter! And I am here to inform you, now that the sunshine and warmth has chosen to make an appearance in good ole Cedar City, I hear a lot more of it, which makes this Haley happy. :)

            So last week was spring break! (Insert the throwing of confetti and children cheering yaaay here) I did a whole lot of...absolutely nothing. And it was fantastic. I have always loved spending time with my family because while growing up, we didn't really have an option. AND I have the coolest family in the world. But since moving away I have come to appreciate living with them in ways that I didn't before. Examples are as follows (but are not limited to)... 1. Free Laundry. Like oh my gosh, how glorious is that? SO GLORIOUS. 2. My parental figure's cooking. It's like eating a 5 star meal every single night. AND IT'S FREE! (for me..) and I don't have to cook it! 3. A walk in closet. I know this has nothing to do with my parents but it has everything to do with their house. I MISS MY CLOSET. 4. Being able to set the AC to whatever my little heart desires without it causing issues with roommates. 5. Recording shows on my lovely and quite large TV. 5. Always having somebody to talk to about anything and everything, and knowing that the best advice possible was being offered my way. That’s probably what I miss the most...talking with my mom and dad about everything. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE college and the people who I hold dear to my heart, my friends, but there is nothing like talking to somebody whose love for you knows no bounds and who wants the best in life for you and more. And, since I have the best parents out there, their advice and guidance to me is generally spot on. I seriously count myself so lucky to have such an open and great relationship with my parents. I really miss that. I just miss my parents, which is why coming back to school following spring break has been really hard. I was home for a week and was getting used to having my mommy there all the time, not doing homework or going to classes, and being constantly surrounded by my family. And now that I am back here at school I have to be a responsible adult again and that is not as fun as I was hoping it was going to be.

            To kind of shift gears a little bit, I want to take a minute to be super cheesy. I know, me cheesy? Who would have ever thought! Just bear with me for a second. Even though my family is 4 hours away from me, I have a family here at SUU. I sit in bed and just think about how truly lucky I am to be surrounded by the most incredible people. I have slowly come to the beautiful realization that the people who I surround myself with should lift me up, make me want to be better, and be good examples to me. They should share my standards and help me when im down. And as I have thought about this…all of my friends here in Cedar do just that. I don’t think I need to go into specifics, because you know who you are, but somebody somewhere is really watching out for me. I am so blessed to know you and have your light contribute to my everyday life. Being away from home is hard, this part of our lives is difficult and trying…but that’s why we have friends, isn’t it? The family you get to pick, the people who will be there to lift you up when your family isn’t there, or can’t. So thank you, I love you more than words can express. I hope that I contribute to your life in the same way you contribute to mine, but those are some pretty big shoes to fill.

            Now I am about to get a bit churchy…so if you’re not into that…skip this paragraph. :) This weekend I spent a lot of time with my really close friends Jade and Kelsie. First off, they are the cutest people in existence. Second of all, they are amazing, wonderful and incredible people. And while we were spending our glorious time together, we went to a devotional given by the temple President in St. George and his wife. They spoke to us about gross stuff like love and marriage that doesn’t pertain to me at this point in time even relatively, but I did learn some really valuable and incredible things that can be applied to my everyday life. They gave us 8 suggestions on how to build a healthy relationship and while most of them are strictly for romantic relationships (gross, right?) but the last thing President Hafen said really struck a chord inside me. He said, “everything worth having is worth waiting and preparing for.” I will be the first to admit, I have very little patience. I want everything right now. The fact that I have to get a phd to do what I want in life genuinely stresses me out, considering I have only done not even a whole semester of college so far. And while I was sitting there, thinking about this statement, I realized how genuinely true that is. I don’t have to have everything I want right now…I feel like that would A) teach me absolutely nothing and B) I will come to appreciate the small and finer things in life when I have to wait and prepare for the monumental and mile stone things in life. Granted, I am only 18 years old and the most I should be waiting and preparing for is my long awaited summer vacation, but it really makes one ponder. Everything happens in the Lord’s time, and while I have heard that since I was little, it didn’t become real to me until today. Everything in life that is worth something is worth waiting for, and during the wait you can prepare yourself to be your best self, so when the time comes, you can take it on full throttle and not hold a single thing back. This rant probably means nothing to any of you…but it makes sense to me. And it was one of those little life lessons I have been needing to learn. I am just so grateful for the gospel and the blessing it is in my life, and the aid it has given to help me learn the little lessons in life. I am a pretty lucky girl, and I have a lot to wait and prepare for.

            Sorry this post is so fetching long, I had to make up for the long period of time I said nothing on here. But hey…this was worth waiting for, wasn’t it? ;) I love you, person reading this, and I am grateful for you in my life. I hope you have a marvelous week, and until next time! :) 

Big Kid Post

HEYY GUYS! So..I'm 18 and this is officially the first blog post as a big kid...and first blog post in a while. My bad...What's up world? I don't really understand why I asked you that, since even if you did respond I couldn't hear you. But you are definitely more than welcome to shoot me a text or fb message telling me all about your life if you want to :)

            I definitely feel there is so much to blog about and I can't for the life of me think of a single thing to say. Let me ponder this...and I will definitely keep you posted.

            Ok I'm back from pondering my life. Here is what has been going on in the world of Haley. First things first, the relationship with the cute Australian boy in my psychology class has progressed. He still hasn't learned how genuinely weird I am. What we do know is that A) He thinks I have pretty hair. B) He remembered my birthday and C) He called me love. I KID YOU NOT. I'm thinking a spring wedding would be nice, don't you agree?  I also have a set surgery date! May 7th so...if you are going to be within reasonable distance of my humble abode around that time, (and all summer long if we are going to be real here) feel free to stop by with gifts of feeling better. Or just entertainment, because at least 2 weeks of being non-weight bearing does not sound like the best time in the world...Yay for having crappy knees. I hate you left knee, I hate you a lot. But I do look forward to doing everything that I love again! Which consists of living my life without being concerned my knee is going to give out, or being in excess amounts of pain constantly. High fives all around. Surgery and modern technology, you rule.

            I also turned 18!! Holy crap, it is about freaking time! I just want to take a moment to thank my mom and dad for getting married and holding hands and having me (because that's how babies are made..right?) because...I like being alive. I think it's a real good time, so shout out to you two. thanks guys :) I am so happy to finally be legally responsible for my actions! Let me tell ya, jail really wasn't that bad!!...joke. I have yet to be caught doing something illegal. I feel like I am doing a pretty solid job, I am 5 days in and they have yet to catch me...15 points to Gryffindor! Back to my birthday celebrations...I had such a good day! I absolutely LOVE birthdays (especially mine) so I had some pretty high expectations. Especially since I have the best family in the world so birthdays are pretty rockin' in the young family :) I was definitely sad to be away from my parents but my friends and siblings took good care of me! My roommates are the cutest and they all stayed up until midnight with me to celebrate the first few moments of my day, cupcakes were in fact included. Also a candle..needless to say I was satisfied. I was bombarded with so much love and kindness on my birthday by my friends and family that it blew me away, like it does every year. I feel so blessed to know so many wonderful people :) I went and took my psychology test, which is when my hot australian boyfriend not only remembered it was my birthday but saved me a seat next to him AND CALLED ME LOVE. I then proceeded to call my mom and scream with excitement the entire way home. Breanna and her hubby Jason came over shortly following and brought cupcakes and presents! My favorite things in the whole world... :) Then my friends took me out to dinner and we watched a movie all together. I also got to experience what a Crocodile Death Roll is. Off the sofa. Onto the floor. Face first. Happy birthday to me. hahaha it may not sound like much, but it was such a good day. Thank you to everybody who texted, called, wrote on my facebook wall, was present during the festivities, or even thought about me...you never cease to amaze me at the unconditional love you show for me. You guys are the greatest. SERIOUSLY.

            So other than that I am not quite sure what else is happening in my life. Kim and I cleaned our room..which, if you saw it, was pretty monumental. I wrote my friends on missions, took a day trip to St. George, I got a temporary tattoo (which I have yet to place on my body...), had serious inspiration during church, and added more pictures to my picture wall. I live such an incredible life, huh? :) In reality, I seriously feel so blessed, especially recently. I have the world's best roommate, I have incredible friends, my family is bomb. I have the gospel in my life, I go to an incredible school where I am getting a quality education, and I have yet to go hungry. Life is pretty incredible when ya think about it. :) I hope you all have such an incredible week, and until I blog again, which should be more frequent than it has been..my bad, I hope your days are filled with rainbows and sunshine!