Mawidge

I AM GETTING MARRIED IN A MONTH!!! Okay is this for real?! I'm pretty dang excited, obviously. I've been reminiscing a lot about everything that Daniel and I have been through and how truly blessed I am to be marrying such a great man and... Cherry on top... That I'm marrying into a wonderful family! I feel so lucky. I have a wonderful family who loves me and has always supported me and loved me and I never imagined I would be so blessed as to marry someone who comes from a family that I could appreciate as much as I do the Jordans. That's probably weird because maybe most people dream about marrying into great families. But I always just figured no one could be as great as my family! 

Wedding plans are fun. Really. I'll be the first to admit I've been a little bit stressed at times and I will also admit that I've taken it out on my sweet fiance much more than he deserves. But from all the stories I've heard about the struggles of pulling everything together, I think Daniel and I have actually been doing really well! Probably because he spoils me and gives in to just about everything that I want! And he's a trooper when I force him to come with me to various appointments and look at pictures upon pictures with no end! But all the details are coming along great and I am so excited. It's going to be a blast! Just a few things to look forward to... 

Famous Dave's Catering. Hello. Delicious. 

Wedding Cake. Not just any wedding cake either. 3 different kinds of the best cake you'll ever eat to choose from. And red velvet might be one of those flavors....

A professional DJ. Dance party all night. Need I say more?!

Photo booth! What what?! And what's this? Unlimited pictures? Yeah. Fantastic I know. 

That's just a few things I'm excited about. Not to mention my dress and the flowers and the guys' tuxes. They are sexy. Let me just say. No joke. It's been a lot of fun planning everything out I love looking at all the wedding stuff on theknot and pinterest. It's so fun to see all the different ideas and the way people show their personalities through the details... I love it. And the romantic inside me adores weddings because they're practically the happiest day (up to that point) in our life! 

I've been pretty lucky with my bridesmaids as well. I had so much fun on my bachelorette weekend up to Jackson Hole and Amy (Maid of Honor) is planning my bridal shower which I know will be amazing! Considering that everything she does is over-the-top awesome and pretty much perfect! She's pretty dang great. 

Moving along... Daniel and I just finished reading my favorite book in the world. The Princess Bride. If you haven't read it you've probably seen the movie. Brilliance. 

Before Daniel left for his mission we were supposed to watch the movie together. But we never did. We watched movies ALL the time. Favorite thing, seriously! But for some reason it just slipped through... for 2 years until he left on his mission! So skipping ahead a couple months... I'm living in Hawaii for school but the semester is over so I'm all packed up and ready to go home. Well I was flying stand-by which means who knows how long I'll be in the airport. Plus it's a 6 hour flight. So I wanted a new book to read. So I ran over to the school bookstore before leaving for the airport and search for a book to read. And I see it! The Princess Bride! Naturally I had to get it. 

In the 2 years that Daniel was on his mission, I read this book countless times. I would read it and then after a couple weeks I'd be thinking about it and forgetting small details, so I had to read it again! It's an amazing book. My all time favorite. Every time I read it I would think about Daniel and how much I would love to read him the book. It's not that Daniel doesn't like to read, it's just that he doesn't have all that much time to sit down and really enjoy a good book outside of the scriptures. So I didn't think it would really happen, not for a while anyway. 

Skipping ahead again. Daniel is home off his mission in January and in April we're engaged and the book has gone untouched for a few months. So a couple nights ago I'm waiting for Daniel to get off work and I'm itching to read a good book. And The Princess Bride just happens to be in eyesight as I'm thinking this! So naturally I start to read it. So Daniel gets home from work and he gets all excited about the book and I suggest we read it together! I honestly thought it was going to take us months to get through it. Well that night we read for hours. Like 3 hours! And the next few nights went the same way. It happened at the perfect time because the second night it snowed like crazy so we didn't want to go out. So we snuggled up with hot apple cider and The Princess Bride by the fire and read all night (okay not all night, give me a break. but we read for a few hours again). GEEKS. I know. But come on. It was great!

So less than a week later we're already finished with the book and he loves it as much as I do! Well... Maybe not quite as much. But he definitely loves it! It's exciting to me because it's a classic. I want to read it to my kids and I them to love it too! And I want to go to Florin. Did you know they have a museum dedicated to Morgenstern (the original author. William Goldman did the abridgement)? And the Cliffs of Insanity is apparently always running rampant with tourists? Amazing. Take me take me take me PLEASE! And now Daniel is hooked. So basically my life is complete. 

I'm getting married. I love my soon to be husband. I love his family. We're moving back to Colorado (yeah that detail got skipped... but we're moving back YAY). We get to start our own little family soon. And he loves The Princess Bride. *sigh* My life is a fairy tale right now okay?! Nothing can bring me down!

An Attitude of Gratitude

Recently I've just been thinking about how grateful I am for all my blessings in life. I have a loving family who is always there to talk to me and comfort me and give me advice not only when I'm feeling down but when I'm feeling up to. How grateful am I for such a great family who I know will never leave me lonely! I have a great fiance who takes care of me. Who trusts me and relies on me and always puts 110% effort into making sure that I am happy and also that we are both living worthy of a temple marriage. I am seriously amazed by him. He gets up every morning at 5:45 to work out, shower, read scriptures, and get to work early. Then he works HARD all day long to provide for me and our future family (and we aren't even married yet!). Then he comes home and has dinner with me and spends time with me and then he goes and works out AGAIN! Man just talking about all that exhausts me ;) But seriously. How did I get so dang lucky?!

I'm also grateful for my job, for Uncle Luke and Uncle Will and Uncle Steven who help me and Daniel out more than we could ever pay back. Which makes me also grateful that I am marrying into such a wonderful, hard working, loyal family. I'm grateful that my best friend in the world is going to be my SISTER-in-law! I'm grateful for Amy and everything she does for me. For her constant effort to be here for me and make my wedding go smoothly! And I'm grateful for Hannah (and I'm so glad Hannah and Amy are living together! What the awesome. Haha) and for her constant friendship. Basically, I am just such a blessed person!

Well what has got me thinking about all of this? I don't like to write posts that are dissing on people that I actually know and I don't really like posts that aren't fun and colorful and full of pictures. Part of living a positive life is not dwelling on the negative. But what has got me thinking a lot lately is how ungrateful some people are.

I don't want to get into the specifics, but it is very interesting to me how people my age, in my generation, can be so very very... different? Is that the right word? K, I'm going to be blunt. How so many people are ungrateful and lazy. It's so frustrating for me to drive downtown and see beggers on every corner of every street. And they are young. And they are physically able. And there is a McDonald's down the street that is hiring. I'm not ignorant. I know that there are extenuating circumstances and some people are trying their hardest to get out of the positions they are in. But seriously I'm willing to bet you that the majority of people out there are just lazy and entitled. People expect to work the very minimum and get the same kind of incomes as people working their butts off!

Daniel works every day (except Sunday). And he doesn't walk into someone's home and do the bare minimum either. He looks at as many appliances as they will allow and makes sure they are running efficiently and then he tells the customer exactly what they need to keep them happy and functioning without worrying about anything breaking down on them. He doesn't walk away until the customer is happy. And some days it is so stressful. It's hard. Yes, work is hard. But the payoff is worth it. Not just financially, but the self satisfaction that comes with hard work and determination and knowing you're accomplishing something worthwhile every day.

I just hope that instead of dwelling on the negatives and settling for less than I am worth, I can remember to always work hard and be a reliable person. Like Daniel is. Just some food for thought I suppose. I haven't posted recently and this has been on my mind for a while. Feedback is always welcome. :)

Home Sweet Home

There is nothing quite as sweet as home. Living here in Utah has really shown me that. Not that I don't love Utah... Okay actually I don't. Haha. I love having family here. I love seeing my big sister and my little nephew all the time and I love Daniel's family and everything they do for us (namely Uncle Luke & Aunt Erica and Uncle Steven) and being able to see and hang out with a lot of Daniel's cousins as well (the Leany's) is so great. And of course my cousin Hannah who I love to death and Melissa who is so much fun! So in that manner, Utah is swell (do people still say swell?! I guess I do!).

Last weekend Daniel and I went home- to Colorado. Oh man I love that place! And I love all the family out there too! My parents and siblings and Daniel's parents and siblings and his Uncle John and all their kids. I love them all! Seriously people. I don't even know where to start with how great our trip home was!

At the beginning I suppose! So we flew in on Thursday after work. Up until our flight, I was a crazy ball of craziness!

I think Daniel had just about enough of my rantings because he decided to help calm me down... By freaking me out. Excellent.
Exactly an hour before we needed to be leaving from the airport he tells me he has to drive to Ogden "real quick" to help one of the other techs with a call... Uhh HELLO?! It was traffic hour and Ogden is 30 minutes away without the traffic. Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh. I'm trying to stay calm but I was doing a BAD job of it!

what I imagine I would have looked like driving to the airport

So he laughs... But it's so not funny! Until he tells me he loves me and is totally joking, he's almost home. (Did I mention he hadn't packed yet? Yes, he's a better procrastinator than me!) Okie dokie. The up side of that story- all my stress is out the window! Because hey, it could be worse. I could be crazy lady speeding to the airport as the plane was taking off.

The flight out went smoothly and we got in pretty late- to late to get anything accomplished which is perfect for visiting time! And considering I hadn't seen Amy in about 37 years, I had a lot of visiting to do!

On Friday, we went to the same lady who did my sister's dress alterations for her, Judy, she's wonderful. Seriously love her she is so sweet and not to mention efficient! She took measurements for Malory and Amy to add sleeves to the dress (all my other bridesmaid's are in Utah unfortunately) and then we went over to Cheri to do a flower consultation.

It could not have gone better! You know when your family has the hook-ups and you're just feeling great? It was like that. Except before I met Cheri it was like, okay does my fam really have the hook-ups or do we know some old lady who likes flowers and orders them from Costco? Ughh. It was kind of making me nervous. Well, it turns out Cheri is amazing and she has a similar taste in flowers to me so I can relax because I know she's going to do some beautiful work for us! I want to spill all the details, but Daniel likes to keep everything on the down-low so that when people come to our reception it's like "Ohh, Ahh!" and an Angel's chorus in the background!

After that Ames had to leave for work which stunk, but we didn't do too terribly much after that. We did go to a cake tasting, I'll omit the name because I don't want to bad mouth them openly like that, they're probably great but it wasn't a good experience! They had 4 flavors to taste. I know what you're thinking! White cake, chocolate, strawberry, marble, red velvet maybe. That's what I was thinking too. Errrr! Wrong! They had (prepare yourself........) Mexican chocolate- not too bad but kind of dry. Rum. Gross. Banana Rum. Grosser! and Cherry Amaretto. So apparently they thought we were alcoholics?! But seriously- who wants to feed 350+ people with such... interesting... flavors. Not us. And the frosting was greasy. No thanks...

Then it was just running around to Archiver's and Hobby Lobby getting some stuff to do a little project I was wanting to do for the engagement pics. So we completed that- again wanting to spill everything but Daniel has put me on lock-down!

Saturday was even better. Ames had the day off so we spent the entire day together. We went and got our eyebrows done in the morning and then bought some shoes. Sidebar... I have a shoe addiction. And Daniel has forbidden me from buying shoes because I went a little crazy a couple months ago and bought 3 pairs... But Amy bought me these ones for $10 so it was okay. But I figured I'd get Daniel back ;) So Daniel meets us at the mall and I'm like, "Babe... I love you, don't be mad okay?" So he gets this look on his face like... Oh great what now?! So I told him I bought another pair of shoes... And I got some for Amy too... And they were $25 each... It would've been great except he decided to be okay with it! Dang it, why is he such a sweetheart?! Haha.

So then we go to the other cake tasting place. It was.... AMAZING. Like, holy moly delicious heaven on our taste buds! The place is called The Makery and the consultant helping us and designing our cake was so much fun and so talented and the cake... was delicious (I'm sorry did I say that already?!). They had plently of flavors for us to try, all that we requested and every single cake was great! I could not be more excited about our cake! Now everyone seriously needs to come to our reception solely to taste our cake. I'll clue you in a tad... We're having 3 cakes, 1 main 4 tiered cake and 2 "satellite" cakes that are 2 tiers. The main cake is White Chocolate with a Strawberry filling. YUM. One satellite cake is Strawberry with Strawberry Bavarian Cream filling. SO YUMMY. And the other is a Red Velvet cake. YUMMMM. And they all have cream cheese frosting. I'm daydreaming just thinking about them again! EPIC SUCCESS on the cake!

Then we went to find our caterer. Danny was set on BBQ which at first I was a little apprehensive about. This is a wedding, not a graduation party! But everyone we talked to seemed to like the idea and then we went to Famous Dave's and it was so good I'm completely sold on the idea! So we set them in stone and we're very excited! Daniel, Amy, and I all loved the food!

After so much food and running around we were pretty beat so we headed home. That night, one of Daniel's best friend's Josh Hoeft got baptized and we got to go to that which was so awesome. We couldn't be more excited! Daniel gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost. I really love when he speaks about spiritual things. He has such a strong testimony and you can always feel the spirit so strong when he speaks. I feel very blessed to be marrying him. I know he will be a wonderful leader for our home and for our kids.

Sunday we went to church and then that evening we did our engagement pictures. Becca did so wonderful for us! Daniel has a hard time being comfortable in front of a camera, especially when it comes to PDA. It's kinda funny actually how awkward he can be! But Becca was really able to get him to relax a little and I haven't seen the pictures yet, but I'm so sure that she captured so many great pics! It's almost been a week and she said to give her about 2 so I'm starting to get rather anxious! Haha. I've always been spoiled since my mom is professional photographer and she does so great I have a hard time trusting anyone else to capture what I know my mom is capable of! But Becca did great, I seriously cannot wait to see the pics!!! Also, I decided Becca is also wonderful because she also loves shoes and she loved mine. So she is good in my book! Haha

So that is my forever long story about how great and productive our trip home was! I love our family out there so much and I have always known Colorado is home base and we want to go back, but being home really just reminds me how much we love Colorado and we will be going home as soon as we can. :)

I'm Back!

Okay... It's only been what 8 months?! Hey I have journals that have postings a year apart so we're going to overlook my 8 month MIA status, cause I'm back and I'm going to do way better this time! Maybe it's just because I have a lot more I feel like I can blog about now. Yeah, we'll go with that. So today's blog... This girl right here, she's engaged. And the best part, it's to the man of her dreams!!! Whoo!

I guess I'll just start by saying how lucky and blessed I am to have such a wonderful man in my life who is willing to overlook my flaws and my mistakes and love me with all his heart and work hard each day to be the best for me. I knew from the moment I met this boy (yes, he was a boy when I met him- 18 years old, but still a boy!) I knew that he was different from any guy I'd ever met before. The first time I met Daniel, I was at his house with my best friend, Amy (his sister) for a sleepover and all us girls were hanging out in the kitchen eating pizza and chatting away like we all know girls are great at! So... we're all chatting away and Daniel comes in the kitchen after working out on the farm (oh did I mention they live in the Hundred Acre Woods- haha just kidding but they do live on hundreds of acres with horses and cows and chickens and the whole works!) and he's wearing his cowboy hat and a dirty white shirt, jeans, and his boots. Well that right away sparks my attention! Plus the fact he was a complete STUD. Woohoo I scored big!

Holy moly he looks so young and cute here! (this is actually from after we'd been dating for a few months)

We hit it off right away and fell in love quicker than either of us was used to. But we were crazy about each other and we knew that we wanted to be together for a long long long time (eternity maybe?!) So after we dated for a year and a half he left for his mission, I cried, we wrote and wrote and wrote, he came home, I cried again, he proposed, I cried again!, and now we're preparing to be sealed for time and all eternity!

So the big question everyone asks us, how did he ask? Well it's a great story, lemme tell ya, the best actually :-)

So the first thing you need to know about me to appreciate this story, is that I do not surprise easily! I LOVE being surprised, but I'm always anticipating and snooping and hoping that something is going down so I always manage to figure it out! Which stinks for me but I can't help myself! So Daniel, knowing how much I love surprises, was set and determined to surprise me when he asked me to be his wife.

Naturally, I wanted him to ask. I mean, like WANTED him to ask. Yeah, I was that crazy, pushy, girlfriend dying to plan a wedding and show off a ring! But I tried so hard not to be too pushy or crazy because let's be honest, who wants to marry a crazy person?!

So it all started with him going home to Colorado to update his driver's license (yeah, we live in Utah now... that's a story for another day though!) and before he left I was getting kind of antsy. So he finally caved in to my crazy and asked why I was so antsy. So I told him that maybe, just maybe, I was thinking in my head that he was going to talk to his dad about marrying me and then ask my dad for permission (yeah, I know I got one of the good ones who actually asked for permission!). Well... that one blew up in my face. Daniel had to sit me down to tell me all about how we weren't ready yet and I needed to relax because he would tell me when he was going to talk to my dad (wow that sucked he put my fire out and told me he wasn't going to surprise me). So he left for Colorado and I stayed in Utah and pouted all weekend.

Meanwhile over in Colorado... Daniel spent the weekend on the other end of the spectrum! He took my Dad out to lunch and asked for his approval to marry me, which my Dad gave him (don't worry I had already threatened my Dad years before with all sorts of despair had he given Daniel any grief!), and he bought a big diamond ring (which he chose himself after hours and hours of searching with his dad and brother Joe but holy cow he did a great job!) and showed all his siblings and swore them to secrecy!

Love it. :-)

 

So I literally spent the whole weekend pining and pouting but trying to get over the fact that marriage was not right around the corner like I was hoping it would be. But I was determined to let it roll off my back. So when he came home on Monday I was happy hunky dory again. And on Wednesday (April 11th) Daniel suggested we go to Temple Square because I had been begging him to take me again for about a month after we had gone up for my old roommate's wedding reception. I was super excited and there was no way I was going to ruin what hopefully was going to be a great date (little did I know it'd be the best date up til that point!) by bringing up the "M" word again.

Then that afternoon it started POURING rain. Probably to welcome my cousin, Hannah, to the state since she's from Washington ;-) And there was no sign of it letting up at all. It was perfect. I love the rain, I have since I was a kid growing up in Washington state. So the fact that it started raining just added to the wonderfulness of the whole day! But when I talked to Daniel about it I wavered a little on whether we should save the "walking around Temple Square" date for a less rainy day and Daniel played along perfectly by saying we would just wait it out and see what the weather did.

Work was so long that day! I just wanted to get out of there so I could get home and change and go on a date with my sweetheart! It was also Hannah's first day on the job so I didn't want to leave her hanging or anything. But man I was so anxious to get outta there! Sidenote: earlier that day Hannah was asking me if/when me and Daniel were going to get engaged. Talk about salt in the wound! I wanted to cry, NEVERRRRR apparently! But I didn't I just played it off like we were just waiting for the right time. So the end of my shift FINALLY came so I rushed Hannah out of the office but my boss... Uncle Luke!... decided to keep us even longer! He had us scrubbing out the car for our new technician and talking and finding a pot of gold he had lost... yeah you get the idea! Haha and he had the longest talk with Hannah I'd ever waited through. Panicked through more accurately. I was so scared he was lecturing her on her first day! Little did I know they were scheming with Daniel!

After we completed Luke's 7 million tasks we left for Uncle Luke's house (because he's graceful enough to let me crash there) to change and get ready. Then the date began! Hannah went home and me and Daniel went for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Noodles & Company. Don't judge. It's DELICIOUS. We ate the penne rosa (seriously- go try it. It's amazing).

penne!

Then with the rain still coming down we debated rescheduling Temple Square. I was put out but willing to wait. So Daniel acted like he wanted to do it another night but then he quickly changed his mind and said, "You love the rain anyways, let's go!" So with a smile on my face we started the drive to Salt Lake City. Daniel was so distracted he almost ran a red light! And it's a good thing I didn't try to talk about anything of importance because I don't think he heard a word I said! 

Temple Square was perfect. We walked around the main Visitor's Center (after running through the rain and getting DRENCHED) and talked about scripture stories and held hands and hugged and kissed and all that good stuff. Then we got to a room that was talking about eternal families and I got emotional. I had been doing good all night but man I wanted to get married and start my eternal family! So this room on eternal families was practically mocking me! I didn't want to seem crazy though so I tried to act cool (ha- me acting cool, we all know how that works out!) but of course Daniel saw right through that one! He hugged me and assured me that at the right time the Lord would bless us with the blessing of an eternal marriage and children. Then the building was closing for the night. 

So we walked around outside. Taking pictures and loving every second that we were spending together. All that gushy mushy lovey stuff you know. 

a couple pictures from that night!

Then we had to leave for the night. So as we were starting to leave Daniel got all nervous, started going through his pockets like he lost something. Then he told me he lost his debit card. Well crud. But I figured it had to be okay, it was probably in the car. So I told him let's just go look in the car, I'm sure you left it in there, why else would it have just fallen out of his pocket?! Well he insisted he had it in the visitor's center so we started looking around but couldn't find it anywhere! I insisted it wasn't a big deal because I lose my cards all the time and you just wait til someone returns it. And if no one returns it then you call the bank and cancel it. Yeah, don't judge me, I guess I'm a tad naive sometimes... Well Daniel insists that his luck is not that good, his identity will get stolen! 

That's when it hit me. He does have horrible luck! We had better find that card! So I go into panic mode and start searching like crazy. But that card is no where to be found! So I walk passed this statue and head for the visitor's center and insist that someone will have to let us in! Well he stops in front of the statue I passed and says "Hey Carlie I think it's over here". Flustered, I replied "I just looked there it's not there let's go look inside!" and he patiently replied, "No... I think it's over here somewhere..." 

I knew it wasn't over there so I quickly walked over there to prove my point and I saw it. Not his debit card. Something a lot better. It was a ring. My hands automatically covered my face as I didn't want him to see me crying! Through my tears I saw him get down on one knee, take the ring in his hand, and then he asked me to be his wife for time and all eternity. Oh man I was crying and laughing and nodding my head so hard I don't even want to know how much of a bobble-headed-dork I looked like! I finally sputtered out "Yes, yes, yes!" And he slid the ring onto my finger and picked me up and hugged me and spun me around (I know, so fairy tale romantic right? Man, I really got myself a good one!) And I stared at the beautiful ring he put on my finger.

Also, to give credit where credit is due, the ring had been set out by my wonderful cousins, Hannah and Melissa, which was a dang good thing because when Daniel claimed to have lost his debit card, I made sure he checked his pockets and took everything out! They're so great! 

And that's the story of the best day of my life 

(up until I actually marry this guy of course!).

Nothin' to do with Luck

I've had a couple experiences that have really strengthened my testimony in the last couple weeks and I have a little bit of extra time so I thought I'd get on and share a little bit! I was thinking about my life and how grateful I am for my many blessings and I thought to myself- "Man, I am so lucky!" Well I've thought more about it and I've decided that luck has nothing to do with it. 

I really am so blessed in my life. I have a great family who I love so much and despite my many flaws, I know that they love me too. I have a wonderful man- Daniel Jordan- in my life who respects the priesthood that he holds, has an unbreakable testimony, and loves serving the Lord and other people (he is currently on a mission in Roseville California, is a zone leader in the Granite Bay area which is the same area as the mission president as well as the Area 70... I'm sorry I'm bragging but I can't help it!) and who loves me and treats me like a queen. I get along great with Daniel's family and love them like they were my own (yes, I am aware they are not actually my family... yet... ;] haha). Despite struggling financially I am in school and have had great experiences throughout my college experience without over-stressing about money because I have been blessed with grants and scholarships and currently an internship that I am super excited for. I had the opportunity to go to school at BYU-Hawaii where I made good friends and tons of great memories. I could go on and on but let's just all come to the conclusion that- my life is abundantly blessed! 

 

In Daniel's last email (he sends weekly email updates to his family and close friends) he gave us a challenge to pray out loud. Well, I pray every night and before I eat and okay I'll be honest, I usually forget in the morning, but I try to remember. Granted, I should be working on consistency in my morning prayers. Okay so I took his challenge and said okay this seems like a great idea! I was praying about a few main things. First, if I should plan on transferring for the next semester (the one that starts in January) and second- here's the biggie!- I was praying... and kinda begging the Lord to help me get this internship that I applied for. At the beginning of the semester I learned that I was getting about $2,500 less than the previous semesters and I was struggling to get by as it was. So I made sure I was a 100% full tithe payer and I prayed a whole lot and I trusted that the Lord would provide some way to get me through because I know that school is the right thing and taking a semester off was NOT what the Lord wanted and it definitely wasn't what I wanted! So when I heard of this internship teaching and tutoring Math in the local schools here in Northern Colorado I got really excited! I started putting all my information together, wrote some pretty dang good essays- if I don't say so myself!- and asked the people I thought would be best to write me recommendations. I ended up having Daniel's Uncle John and his dad write me recommendations and I also asked one of my old math teachers, Mr. Maline and one of my old english teachers who I absolutely adore, Mrs. Kruse also write me recommendations. Well it ended up that I only needed two and since I was in a rush I only used the one's from John (who knows me well because I work for him when I'm not in school) and Brother Jordan (Daniel's dad- who I respect a whole lot and spend a lot of time with his family and have tutored a few of his kids). 

So anyways! Getting back to my point... When I prayed out loud I decided to really ask the Lord to help me get that internship (did I mention it's a paid internship?! that plus the experience... I really wanted it!). To help the people reviewing the applications to see why I would be a great choice and so on and so forth. I hate to admit this.... But it's been too long since I have sincerely prayed out loud for something I really wanted. It has really only been a couple months but every time I pray out loud, it helps me get much more in the mind-set that I am talking to my Heavenly Father and it helps me remember that I'm not just praying for what I want... I'm praying to know and understand His will and His plan for me and accept it even when the whole understanding part comes slower! Well when I prayed I felt the strongest impression that things would work out. Sometimes it's hard for me to not just get the answer, "Hey! Carlie! It's me. Heavenly Father. Don't worry, you're going to get the internship. And while we're chatting, I'm also going to throw some missionary experiences your way so be ready for them! And you should probably call your sister today and tell her you love her because she's feeling a little lonely. Talk to you soon..." Haha wouldn't that be great?! Okay well my answer was definitely not that forward. But I knew things would work out. And I knew that it was important for me to continue being faithful and share my testimony whenever I got the opportunity. And low and behold, I got the internship. And I couldn't be more excited and grateful! 

That was just one of many great, testimony strengthening experiences that I've had since I got back to school and it's such a wonderful thing to know that Heavenly Father loves every single one of His children and when we have faith and are willing to serve others Heavenly Father will bless our lives. It's not luck. It's faith and showing our faith through our works. I love this Gospel and I'm so grateful for it in my life! 

Wild Rantings

To be rather honest, by nature I am not a "blogger" in any way, shape, or form. I don't like to share things about my life that will inevitably become more and more personal as I get more and more comfortable on this little online journal-or blog-or whatever else we want to call it. Forget not having any readers, what happens when a bunch of random people I don't know are reading about my life and my thoughts! That's probably giving myself way too much credit considering my posts will probably be rather boring. But here I am on the blogging-bandwagon anyways. And I do hope that there will actually be some people (rather than creepers) that will be reading my blog and maybe enjoying some of my wild rantings that undoubtedly will slip out of my brain and onto this online forum. :] So we'll see how this goes! I don't really have anything else to say tonight other than Hello! And I hope you enjoy my blog and bear with me as I don't really know what I'm doing here!