Life as of Late

Well the blog has been neglected... time to cover some ground.


ADDICTION.

Why has the blog (and so many other things) been neglected lately?

Because I'm doing something that I think is a COMPLETE and utter waste of time... yet I do it anyway.

Yup- I'm addicted to a TV show. So dumb. But so great. Vampire Diaries. When I got home from my mission, my closest friends were all obsessed with Vampire Diaries. I wasn't interested. Quite frankly, I hate TV. It's crap. All of it. Little good comes from watching TV these days. About once a year, I will find a TV show to preoccupy my time with... whether "Friends", "LOST", or "Prison Break"... just great addicting ones. This years TV show is Vampire Diaries for sure.

Why do I love this dumb show? Well I guess besides the fact that I have a TV show crush on Stephan Salvatore... oh wait, there is no other reasons.... oops. I LOVE THIS CHARACTER! I love his way of thinking, I love his dedication to the love of his life, I love his calm composure... he's just great. Oh and Dan knows all about this. He watches it with me. He thinks Elena is dreamy... among other things. Plus who doesn't love the endless problems and drama? It makes real life look like a cake walk.

So this addiction all started because I have the best worst job ever. My boss was gone for 2 weeks pretty much, which left me with a WHOLE lot of time to do nothing... I don't do well with nothing. So hello to my first Netflix account. Good thing the first 3 seasons of Vampire Diaries were on there... 6 hours a day goes by quickly when you have 3 seasons to get through! I'm not proud of it people. But what's a girl to do for 80 HOURS?!?! You can only check Facebook so many times a day, play on Pinterest, etc. etc.... don't judge... at least not too harshly. I was going crazy sitting in front of a computer. I had too much time on my hands. It was scary.

AN ARMY.

The new missionary age change.... I about squealed for joy and wanted to freak out... but I was at the in-laws and somehow found myself alone sitting watching conference (I don't remember where everyone else was...) and didn't want to make my mother-in-law think I was crazy!

What a freaking cool thing. AH I just can't even comprehend the effects this will have... so many missionaries filling the Earth.. literally the Earth... with truth. I saw this video yesterday and it filled me with JOY! So many lovely ladies in my life have put in their papers or are making arrangements to do so... my heart just swells with each one!

BUSINESS.

Portland, Oregon--- 3 nights and 4 days--- lots of Farmers.

I had to go to on my first "official" business trip... like the ones where they pay for your airplane ticket, hotel, food, etc. It was an agriculture conference and my hilarious co-worker and I were in charge of the registration. It was a nice change of scenery but definitely not my cup of tea. I found myself in my hotel room watching re-runs of "Full House"... my favorite middle school TV show. I forgot how many great life lessons that family taught me, haha. Plus, it was the only non-crap TV show on at night.

I got some overtime in, (hopefully to help us recover from the cost of christmas presents!) had yummy food, and even used the hot tub once. But traveling will just never going to be that great without my significant other. Plus, it pretty much poured the ENTIRE time we were in Portland... I could never handle living in that kind of weather! It's depressing!

HOLIDAYS.

Thanksgiving was pretty great. My mom came with me to the Wouden's for Thanksgiving dinner, then we turned around and had the DeVries Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday-- we got 2 of them! Dan and I contributed by making the mashed potatoes and a homemade cheese ball... both turned out quite tasty if we do say so ourselves. It was a lot of fun.

I love Christmas. I love pretty much everything about it. I love Christmas music, I love wreaths, I love the smell of Christmas tree scented candles... I love the focus on Christ I feel, and I think my favorite part of Christmas has become giving.

I feel like I've become an awkward receiver of gifts since my mission. All I did was GIVE at that time, still receiving incredible blessings from our Heavenly Father of course, but no so much in a material way. I don't know how to properly accept a gift without feeling awkward anymore. Giving feels so much better. It makes me think about the people I love and am closest to-- who they are and what they like. I get to stop thinking about me and my daily routine. Christmas has saved me so far this year. It's gotten me away from things of non-sense (like Vampire Diaries) and back to reality if you will.

Granted there are still 12 days till Christmas, but December has been amazing so far. There have been miracles for me and for dear people I love.

SERVICE.

I am so grateful for good... two days ago in Walmart, it was a mad house. I was trying to pick up some pictures I developed and the staff was short, the line was long, every customer had a special need... it was stressing me out! When it was finally my turn, I got the pictures, paid for them, went to pick up my wallet to put my card back in, and dumped every little bit of change I had ALL OVER THE GROUND.

It was just like a movie. There was a man with a little boy standing in line behind me. This man set his little boy down, and they both started helping me pick up my change-- the little boy was like a little vacuum, clenching as many pennies and dimes in his little fists as possible, so cute. A Hispanic man joined in and we had a mess of car wash tokens, Canadian pennies, dimes, and so on cleaned up in a jiffy.

As I thanked them and walked away, I was so grateful that there is still good out there. People still have compassion, empathy, love. If I were to have been 3 people behind myself in line, I wonder what I would have done... would my irritation escalated rapidly and an annoyed sigh let out? Or would I have joined in the game of "pick up 100 of a strangers pennies"? I dare say I would have done the first one. But now having been on the other end, I will choose to make the second choice.

And what do you know, this last Sunday I got a new calling as the Compassionate Service Leader... coincidence... I think not.

Happy Holidays my friends.