6 Months

I guess you would think that because it's technically Christmas right now I would be writing a post about Christmas and how it snowed today and I was able to get all of my shopping done in 3 hours this afternoon, we were able to skype with my sister in Thailand for a couple hours, and I am now sitting here writing this in my new zebra print footie pajamas... but that's not what is on my mind right now.

I have been thinking recently about the past 6 months. You know, some people have a hard time living in the present because they are so busy looking forward to and planning for the future, I'm not like that. I have a hard time living in the present because I like to remember the past... it's one of the curses of having a ridiculously good memory. It's how I am able to see someone I met once and place where I met them and what we talked about, and how I was able to keep myself completely head over heels for a guy that I hadn't seen or talked to in 2 years. Anyway, these past 6 months I think it's safe to say have been the most life changing for me out of any other 6 month period so far in my life. Let me explain a little bit.

6 months ago I was living in London. I was immersed in a world that was unfamiliar but I loved so much. I was surrounded by amazing, fun people all the time. I was using foreign money and spent my time going to museums via the tube. I spent a couple of hours a day on skype and the rest of my down time dreaming of the next couple of months to come.

You know on 500 Days of Summer when there is the split screen of expectation and reality? Looking back on this 6 months feels a little bit like that.

I came home from London and went to Colorado and had a perfect week. I cannot think of a single thing that went wrong during that amazing week of four wheeling. Then I came back to Provo and things changed. In the past 6 months I have felt hurt and pain unlike anything I have ever felt before. My heart was completely crushed and I found myself having to work my way back up from what seemed like nothing. The pain has dulled now, that's something that I have found happens over time.

Good things happened too, amazing things actually. I applied for graduation, making this past semester my last full semester of school ever! I was blessed with the greatest roommates in the whole world, one of which is my kindred spirit and has been a life saver for me. I secured a job for next semester that will give me a set schedule.

 I have completely re-evaluated my life and straightened out my priorities. I have become the kind of person that I want to be and that I am proud of, all on my own (with help from a loving Heavenly Father, of course) but without the influence or motivation of another person. I have made changes in my life that I did not even realize that I needed to make before.

My best friend got engaged 5 months ago and was married this past weekend, and I was able to go! I turned 22, which is an age that I have been really excited about for a long time. I had a party and just gave people an open invitation to show up if they felt like it. I had 30 people who I love so much from all of the 4 years that I have been at BYU show up at my apartment to wish me happy birthday! I still can't believe that I have met so many incredible people here! I love them!



This past half year did not go at all the way that I planned, but sometimes God has a better plan for your life. That's what I've learned.

What a Great Weekend!

This weekend was a really good weekend. Yesterday I only had one class. So I went to class for an hour and when I came home I skyped with Julie who is my awesome sister who is studying abroad in Madrid right now. Isn't she gorgeous? Seriously, I have the prettiest sisters.















Then I had to do an assignment where I had to do a lighting set up and light someone... but there was no one around and I couldn't set up lights for myself. So I called Nich who lives really close and was done with class for the day. Then I ended up with an awesome picture like this. haha Jolly Old St. Nich.

My Mom came down to hang out with me for the night. It was awesome! We went to dinner at Zupas and then walked around the mall. (Which doesn't mean just walked around I got a pretty great jacket, thanks Mom!)
















I got an awesome letter this week from my sister Erin who is on a mission in Thailand. My mom brought it down with her. It was one of the best letters ever, she somehow knew exactly what I needed to hear. Missionaries are good at that :) See? She's awesome too, she plays with tigers.









This is the envelope that the letter came in, isn't it great?!
She added a little commentary in the last picture:
"So Asian"


This morning I got up early (7 am!) and went to help film a capstone. I was really cold the whole day. I worked on camera for the first real time, it was a lot of pressure! I think I did ok... There were two Red Epics on set today so instead of doing the second assistant camera person job that I've been trained to do, I found myself being the 1st AC. So I had to focus the camera. I have only done it once before. I made a realization about myself, my left eye is very rarely actually in focus. I'm guessing it has to do with my astigmatism... but I had to focus the camera with one eye haha. It was a little rough, but good practice for when I'll be helping out with camera again next week :) I love working with camera, they are so cool!

Tonight I went to a international movie with my roommate, it was extremely weird. and that's coming from a film major who has watched an unreal number of movies.

When I got home tonight I was just tired... so I sat at home and watched Youtube videos with my roommates :) I found a playlist of 40 of the best cat videos... so worth watching! haha and now I am still not in bed, even though I have now been awake for 14 hours.

See you in 18!

on my tip toes trying to be as tall as Erin

Well, Sister Stolworthy finally left on her mission! (actually it was on January 25th but I haven't written since then.)

We got to spend the morning together as a family before we had to drop her off at the curb. It was a bit of an adventure getting her to the MTC though. We all went to Ihop (Erin's choice) for a big family breakfast. As we were leaving Erin asked me for the keys so that she could drive... then I realized that I had stuck it in my backpack, which was in the car, which was locked. oops!

But things all worked out, we were only stuck for a half hour while we waited for the police to come open the door for us. Then it was on to the temple to take pictures! From the temple we got to say our goodbyes, which was hard, but we got through it. When we went to drop her off, we were only allowed 1 car through. So we all piled into the car and drove her in. haha the missionaries that were helping her were surprised to see so many girls in one car.


Here are some of the pictures from Erin's big day.

Erin decided to help me be a little taller.

All of the girls squished in the car



One last goodbye.



Good luck Sister Stolworthy! We'll see you in 18 months!

Sister Time

Hopefully no one is offended by this haha
Julie and I at EPCOT this summer

My big little sister Julie just came over. She was just going to come by to get a sweater I borrowed from her, but she ended up staying for a couple of hours and we just talked. We didn't talk about anything really important, just what's going on in our lives and catching up but it made me so happy! It made me think about how lucky I am having sisters so close in age to me. Erin is 15 months older than me and Julie is 21 months younger. (She my big little sister because she's 2 or 3 inches taller than me.) When we were growing up it wasn't always my favorite thing to have a sister in both the grade above and below me because we had to share the same group of friends and people compared us a lot. But now that we're living on our own, my sisters are some of my favorite people ever. We are so lucky to be going through the same kinds of things that come with being college aged together and we're especially lucky because we all get to be at BYU together. My sisters are the coolest and they're basically supermodels... just thought I'd add that on there. :)

My two amazing big sisters

Family Pictures by Sheryll Lynne

My family took family pictures a month or so ago and we got them back and they are awesome! We have never, and I mean never enjoyed taking family pictures. But we loved taking pictures with Sheryll Lynne. She is so much fun and takes amazing pictures. She made us look good, and we always struggle with that haha. These are going to be our family's pictures for a long time!

I'm pretty sure this is the best picture of my parents that's ever been taken

Big sisters :)

I love this picture of Erin

cute little sisters

fun with flowers :)

haha gotta love the graffiti

Sorry there's so many, I just liked them all :) I'm not trying to advertise or anything but if you need pictures taken, get Sheryll Lynne because I like almost all of the pictures that she takes. I'm actually ok with having these pictures framed and put on the wall unlike other family pictures we've taken. If anyone knows what picture of me that I'm talking about that hung in our family room for 5 years or so understands how happy I am to finally have a good family picture.

Lesson Learned

I learned a ton of lessons this weekend, some are more serious than others but I will share some of the more light hearted ones.

1. Some things are worth the wait.

2. If you're going to General Conference, there's a parking lot west of the conference center that is only $5 for 12 hours, it's worth it so that you can actually get in. If you aren't there early enough, you don't get to go to conference.

3. Getting a gold star from someone is not the best thing that can happen to you.

4. How my little sisters act when I bring friends home is a reflection of what they think of me

5. I still stink at Mario Kart, but I have my moments on battle mode.

6. If you refuse to leave an apartment while an "exclusive" party is happening, they will soon forget that you were an outsider.

and finally...

7. If someone insists on taking a picture, and you know that the set up will be incredibly awkward, don't cooperate. Give a better suggestion or you will end up with a picture of you that looks like this:

of course, this is an absolutely hilarious picture and I laughed for a good 5 minutes when I first saw it. But I can't have too many pictures like this of me in the world.

Erin's Mission Call

My sister Erin got her mission call in the mail yesterday. So as soon as we got out of class we drove up to our parent's house to open it.

The fateful envelope

Watch her open her call :)

She got called to THAILAND BANGKOK!! It's about as far away as you can get! We are so excited for her. In a family of all girls, I never really thought that any of my sisters were going to go on a mission and now Erin's going to Thailand. It's a lot to swallow at once, but we know that is where she is supposed to go and we are proud of her for making the decision to go.

My family :)

Oh my goodness! Thailand!
Do you know what the Thai language looks like?

Yep. Erin's going to be speaking that haha!

Another Birthday!

This is my sister Erin. She turns 22 today! So here's some pictures of my one and only big sister :)



Don't let this picture fool you, she is actually much taller than me.
I have taken to wearing massive heels to keep up with her.



I think this is one of my favorite pictures ever



there's not really an explanation I can give for this... it was a few years ago



This was us probably about 20 years ago... holy cow, we're old enough to say that now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN!!

Happy birthday little Sarah

So my little sister turns 12 today... I can't believe that she is that old. She's grown up so much, just this past weekend she got contacts and her ears pierced. I want to show some of my pictures of her... of course, my external drive with all my old pictures on it is in the basement with all of my stuff while I'm at home in between semesters. So I'm limited to the stuff that is on my computer, let's see what I can come up with.

with our little cousin Hayley at our aunt's wedding

she's really good with kids... Krugh just stuffed an entire strawberry in his mouth haha

Sarah is pretty hard core

she loves dancing and wii

last Christmas

she gets really excited about gifts... especially sewing machines

at her 5th grade graduation last summer

skyping with the family last year

she stole my camera, I believe

Sarah excited about another gift, I think this was her 10th birthday

without fail, if Sarah is given a present in a bag, she will put it on her head

I found 1 old picture! Little Miss Toothless

Well, those are the pictures I could find. I have so many better pictures so I'll have to update this later :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH-POO!!

Disneyworld :)

This past weekend Erin and I went on vacation to Florida to visit Julie at Disneyworld. What a great weekend!!

We flew out early thursday morning (1:00 am) and by the time we got checked into our hotel we were dead tired. (All nighter number 1 was not good for me) But we made it to our room and fell asleep for a few hours before we went to the park. Then we got up and went to EPCOT!



flying all night was great because I got to see the sunrise :)



EPCOT!



Dinner in Mexico




sunset at Epcot

 The second day we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning and then went home and took a nap and went to Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom was awesome but really hot and HUMID! But we went on a safari and then rode a couple of roller coasters.



giraffe :)




hey look! a rhino!



on the Dinosaur ride. It was pretty scary




we rode it again. and it scared us again

 At Hollywood Studios we went to the Prime Time Diner. We were treated like family in the 50s. It was fun. Then we rode things like Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror!!



me trying to look scared.... but I just look stupid



they're oddly happy about getting shot by a star wars thing




Tower of Terror. I was completely freaked out.

The next day we went to Magic kingdom in the morning and met all of the Winnie the Pooh characters!!! I was so excited! But we weren't there very long because it got really hot. so we went to Hollywood Studios again. We rode Toy Story Mania which was my favorite ride ever! We rode it 3 times in a row :)


SPACE MOUNTAIN!!

 

Talking Mr. Potato Head

  The last day we had Magic Hours so we were able to stay at the park until 2 am! We went to Magic Kingdom so that it wasn't hot and there weren't any lines. it was wonderful!


my sisters on Astro Blaster



SPLASH MOUNTAIN!!

 

Space Mountain again :)

 

the castle!

 It was such a great trip! I was completely exhausted by the end though. We were at Disneyworld until 2. Then our shuttle to the airport was at 4:45. Our flight was at 7:30. We were on the plane until 12. I had to get to class at 4. Then I had to go to FHE at 7. (we played soccer) after that was all went to a movie at the park so we didn't get back until 11. Then my neighbor had a s'more maker so of course we had to try it out. I didn't get to bed until 1:00. Did you notice that I didn't mention anything about sleeping during this whole thing? That's because I didn't. I was awake for 38.5 hours straight! I don't know how I did it but I did. Yeah. Now I have a final at 7 am tomorrow so I need to study for that. yay!

I love Disneyworld!! :)