On July 15th

I got BRACES!!! I was going to tell you earlier but, I have been rather busy lately. I was in SO much pain the first three days!! but I am feeling MUCH better now! It sucks not being able to eat the same things as I used to be able to. Now I have to watch what and how I eat.... its lame!! It was SUPER hard to eat that Tootsie Roll Sucker at work the other day! But I will have them on for 20 months.... which I did the math and I will have them on three months after Elder Von Sowards gets home from his mission. Which will be kinda, really different. I hope he doesn't mind :) but my friends said that she had to have her braces on for 12 months (a year) and she double rubberbanded her braces (just wore two when she needed to wear rubberbands) and she said that sped the process up and it hurt, but it was worth getting them off four months early. Which I agree 100%. So if I double rubberband I am hoping it will take off three months of needing to wear them. It was funny because someone at my work asked me what I would do if I got engaged. I told her I would smile :) haha I hadn't thought of that. Mainly because I wasn't thinking of being engaged anytime soon. Well I have been doing well since then. I sometimes I forget that I have braces on. I think my favorite comment/complement was from Scott at work he said "Whitney-- You look cute with braces, most people look ugly with them on. But not you" All I could say was "uh.... thanks Scott" smile and walk away haha. I thought he was hitting on me at first because he has hit on all the girls at work.

Today was eventful... I guess you could say. I watched the niece and nephew and then somewhat helped my sister pack... they just won't have clothes for a while :D hahaha then I came home and cleaned the front room and the piano room and the kitchen. Then I helped my dad in the back yard until he hurt himself.... then I worked by myself. I forcefully sent my parents out to eat for dinner :D I am a terrible daughter hahaha. Then I weedwacked the whole front lawn... now tomorrow I get to clean up from that mess. But I am excited for tomorrow. My mom doesn't know, but I scheduled her for a message with Sister Fletcher. Whom I hear is AMAZING!!! and then I will get my little session after her :) I am excited. It has been over 6 years since my mom has had a real message by someone that has a license and not from her 18 year old daughter who's thumbs KILL after 5 minutes of messaging her shoulders. Thats why I can't be a Message Therapist.

I was going to go horse back riding tomorrow with Tom and dad tomorrow but I can do that anytime.... Sister Fletcher will be leaving soon so I can't do that just any old time haha.

I am tired and I can't figure out why.... I usually don't go to bed till 4 hours from now. huh. weird. Well I think I will continue to listen to good romantic music and maybe clean my room.... main word was maybe. :D

Step one....

Today I woke up at 8:20 and I had a dentist appointment at 8:30. SO I called the office and she told me not to come in and if her 9 o'clock canceled then I could come in. Well she calls me at 9:10 telling me that the 9 o'clock didn't come in, that they over slept as well. SO I went in and they proceeded to numb me.... 3 shots.... ugh.... I hate the feeling of being numb... and they began to drill. It is funny what you think about while they are drilling into your teeth. For example last time I got cavities filled I was a senior in high school (just a little over a year ago). After school I walked up to "3" the conversation went a little like this: 3 "What's wrong with your face?" "Its good to see you too :) I had to go to the dentist and my lip and cheek is numb" "Oh, I wonder what it would feel like to kiss with a numb lip" I tried to persuade him that if he kissed me I would let him know what it felt like. Unfortunately he did not proceed to kiss me :/ so I thought about it in my mind and couldn't help but smile and giggle. and then my memory was interrupted by a rude tugging on my tooth!! Oh well. So now I am sitting in front of the TV trying not to be in pain while my face is un-numbing. Its funny how much pain your face is in while it is numb. :) good day! Can't wait to see how the rest of the day goes. Tonight is going to be fun!! GIRLS NIGHT!!! I will be late! but I will have fun! I am determined! :D

Scholarships are amazing

I didn't realize how much a scholarship helped out with college. If you have a scholarship do ALL that you can to keep it! It is not fun having to pay for college yourself. Ugh. I am not pleased with myself. Over $1000 in classes this one semester. Today was a stressful day enough. I found out that I am going to pay around $4000 for my braces (luckily I can do this in payments and not right up in front like school :P). I just have not been having good days lately. I need to start running or something, to get all this stress build up gone! I am so glad that institute is free! It is really the only class that I can afford to take! Which is a good thing because I want to take that class and I don't HAVE to take it for photography.

Thanks for listening to my little fit.

Goodnight.... maybe

Time to think

So I got this new job! Nothing TOO exciting. Today was my fourth day (but who's counting?). The first three days I did nothing but cut dots all day. Oh, maybe I should tell you where I work before I start telling you :) haha I work at Severtson Corp which is a theater screen making company. Cool huh? You know those big screens that are hanging up in the IMAX theaters? Ya... I make those :D But anyhow.... So the first three days (24 hours) I cut dots in half and today I got to work the machines... Which I am still debating which one I prefer to do. Well I have a great team that I work with. Shannen (the manager), Justine, Tialene, Grace and Kelcie. Now Kelcie and I got to talk for two and a half hours on my first day, so we learned a lot about each other. She is related to Andrew and Tim. I had a lot of fun talking with her.

Working and cutting dots all day long in a warehouse that doesn't have any music (except for today) it gives you a lot of time to think. Lately I have been thinking of the one and only Von.... Especially today. I miss him so much. I haven't heard from him in a few weeks either. I'm not sure if he got my last letter because I sent it to the mission home instead of him... Which I'm not sure if that would take longer... But I didn't think it would take this long. I check the mailbox everyday hoping to get a letter from him. You see we were best friends for a good three years before he left on his mission. Those were amazing three years. Some of my fondest memories are from those three years. I love him and I miss my best friend a lot.

The first day I thought a lot about the gospel and I don't know why but I was humming hymns to myself a lot. I think this job is going to be great as long as I keep this time of thinking in check. Only positive thoughts!! I can do this! I am SO excited for this job!! :D

Stop and think, you always don't have to be listening to music, or playing on the computer. Just stop and think and listen... My favorite time to think is under the stars.... but living in the city you can't really see them. But when I am under a blanket of stars (and one of wool) I love to just sit and ponder about life, about now, the future and lessons of the past. Let those you love know you love them before its too late. Actions speech louder than words!

Have a great night :)

Today

Today was mothers day. We made my mother breakfast. At church I gave a talk about my mother, I ended up crying while I was giving it... So did my mother and several others as I hear. Then we got home I told my family to come over to the house for a surprise party for my mom. That didn't work out so well. I wasn't really prepared and neither were my siblings. I should never plan parties EVER again!! I can only ever be in charge of invites, my wedding reception is NOT going to be fun hahahahaha. We'll just wait and see how that goes though. As Sister Clarkson was giving her talk about motherhood I just sat there and thought (like I always do, this can sometimes be a very dangerous thing). I can't and can wait to be a mother. I have mixed feelings... but whenever I think of my future children I can't help but think of what a friend said one day, and that is all I can think about. Today was a great day though. I am so thankful for my mother and all that she has taught me and all that I have learned through her example. It is great knowing that through her example I will be a great mom just like she is to me and my siblings. I am thankful that the Lord allowed me to come to this family, I wouldn't want to be a part of another family because I love this one too much.

ugh....

Alright, so I don't understand boys. This shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you girls :) haha. So since I was 16, 3 boys have told me that they love me. One I was interested in when he said that he did and the other told me after the time that I was interested in them had passed. The one and only boy that I had ever said that to never said it to me. He kind of just looked at me and the silent awkwardness grew stronger and stronger between us, so I no longer mentioned the subject to him again. Nor do I believe that he will. Then all the guys that are interested in me I'm not really interested in. But the one that I was interested in acted like he was interested in me as well in fact, we held hands, cuddled and got rather close to our first but alas, I did something and he no longer called upon me. Whatever.... Story of my life. So now that I am not sure what I want because my heart has been broken once again the boys keep coming and saying that they are interested and I have no idea what I feel.... Its NOT a great feeling let me tell you. I know what is like on the other side of rejection and it isn't the best. So here I am listening to sappy love songs, reading a romance novel and am about ready to start crying because all I can think about is what is wrong with me that I can't feel anything for the guys who are interested or say that they love me. Maybe I just need to complain and so this is me complaining... but i am tired of this. I look at all my friends who are in a relationship, engaged or married and they are so happy. I can't wait for marriage, no more of this hahaha, or so I hear. Maybe I should just take my own advice: before holding his hand and hanging out with him frequently, think about what you feel for him. That way when he says that he'd like to be your boyfriend you aren't completely caught off guard and you don't go through a lot of heartache. It's for the best. Just sit down and think. Turn off the music, turn off the tv, put down the book, turn the phone on silent, get down on your knees and pray.

Complaint

I am filing a complaint. I know that it isn't a good characteristic to complain but I think I am going to do it anyway. So, I don't understand. So I've heard there are a lot of guys "after" me. They would love to be my bf. Well the sad thing is, I am not interested in any of these great guys. Either they are ready for marriage, just not my type, or everything I have ever wanted but I am just not attracted to them in anyway! There is no chemistry. I can't like them no matter how hard I try. They all tease too much. I can handle teasing but after a while I get sick of it.
I feel like my heart can't feel anymore. That could explain why I have been feeling so empty lately. The last time I let my heart fall in love with someone they turned around and broke it. I hadn't felt that way in a long time. In a very long time in fact. I wanted him to be with me. I thought we would make a great couple, but he had other thoughts. He didn't want anything to do with me after the second date. Although he had already held my hand and got really close to kissing me, but apparently that meant nothing to him when it meant everything to me. Why do guys not understand the concept of girls? I have no idea what goes through a guys mind (probably just food or something) when girls are constantly thinking about things. Ugh. I'm just tired of being alone I guess. Everyone tells me that I could fix that because of the guys that I know. But I don't want to put them through the pain of dating me when I don't have feelings for them in that way. I couldn't allow myself to do that. I should stop now while I am ahead of myself and not drive all my readers away. Thank you for listening to my sob-story of what is going through my mind tonight.

Spring Break!!

So this is the most exciting Spring Break that I have ever had! It was SO much fun!! I am glad that I went. Well let me tell you what happened :)

Tuesday: We (Rex Sowards, Ted Sowards, Tim Schnepf and I) went and picked up Lauren Pew. That is when the trip started. Right there at her house!! We headed west on the 202. We arrived in Havasupi Lake. Where we saw the London Bridge and ate at In-N-Out. Then we headed for Las Vegas. We immediately went to the Casino and got tickets for the Lion King. It only was $26, student discount. Then right before the show we went and dropped our bags off at the hotel we were staying at. The Stratosphere, which was located on the other end of the strip from where the play was taking place. Once we got to the hotel room Lauren and I changed clothes while the boys did their hair :) hehe. Then we went and saw Lion King. It was AMAZING!! No joke! One of the best plays I have ever seen, one of the only ones that I have seen, but that is besides the point. Then we walked down the strip. We saw the M&M's store where there was 4 stories of M&M merchandice. It was crazy to see that many M&M things and that many colors of M&M's too. Then we went and watched the water works, then we went and walked around Paris. That was fun. Then we went back to our hotel rooms at about 2 in the morning. Where we saw someone in the casino as we were going to the elivator I was walking in front of everyone cuz my feet were about to fall off and there was this couple and the girl yells at him "Don't check her out!" and he says "I can't help it. She's hott!" I looked over to see who they were talking about and low-and-behold they both were looking at me. Once they walked away I began to laugh so hard! It put a little hop to my step when I walked to my room haha.

Wednesday: We woke up and went on the strip. We went everywhere. We went to Greece and then down to the Pirate ship. We didn't go to New York New York which I was kind of ok with. But it would have been fun to go. We want to the Hoover Dam where we told the funniest dam jokes that I have ever heard. And I used to live on a dam... so I have heard tons of dam jokes. Then after we had lunch we left for Cedar City Utah. On the way there we saw tons of Hay and had fun yelling "Hay" out the window. We stopped in St George to see the Temple. It was beautiful and we got there right as the sun was setting which made it so much better! Then we arrived at Tim's sisters house in Cedar City. It was really different being on daylight savings time. Lauren and I have a lot of inside jokes about this night.

Thursday: We woke up and all headed out about 10. We went to Zion National Park where we found snow! It was so beautiful up there. We had fun taking pictures and having a blast. Then we went to Sadona where we looked at shops and walked around for a little bit. Which was nice that we did that because my bum was asleep from staying in that little car for so long. Then we went and saw the Grand Canyon. I had never been to the South entrance I don't think. We got there right before the sunset and it was such a deep red. It was so pretty. It was also freezing cold!! We were going to camp there but then we realized that we might freeze during the night so we called Tim's dad who graciously got us hotel rooms in Flagstaff. So off we went to Flag. When we arrived we went to the hotel room and then to Walgreen's. We had so much fun that night. Then we went to bed.

Friday: We had breakfast at the hotel and then we were off. We went and saw the painted desert. It was so windy through there. There were no mountains they were all little hills. It was crazy. The wind had to be going at least 50 mph. Because when I leaned forward, and I mean far forward, I didn't fall over. There was a perfect ledge that made it look like you were standing at the top of Pride Rock. It was amazingly beautiful. We saw the Petrified Forest, that was pretty cool too. We took a picture by the sign of Root 66. Which I always have wanted to drive down. Then we went to Show low where we stayed at Jared's cabin/house. We had friends join us up there. Jared Neilson, Kristen Fitzugh and Brad Billings all came up there. We ate food, went star gazing and played games. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday: Today was the sad day that we headed home. We went the long way and looked at all the forest that we went through because we didn't get to see a lot since Wednesday, in fact that was the only day that we saw trees. But we had a lot of fun watching movies and driving home. We blared good music and we were safe everyday. We got home and we travel about 1,766 miles I think it was. I had a blast and made close friends on this trip!!

That was the best Spring Break that I had ever had. Now I wish that it wasn't over. hahaha I would have loved to have seen all of Las Vegas. That would have been so much fun.

BUTTERFLY

Beauty
Under-estimated
Talented
Tempted
Elegant
Radiant
Flawless
Light
Young

Every time a see the beautiful butterfly,
I think of my sister with a sparkle in my eye.
She had a great smile and a really big heart,
Unfortunately from this world, she had to part.
I have fond memories with her in my mind,
All I need to do is search and those memories find.
For I fear that she is slipping away and I cannot grasp,
The life that we shared together in the past.
But there is a wonderful thing put on the world now,
The knowledge that I can see her again some how.
I live the commandments of the one true God,
I have to be honest, loyal and not a fraud.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the key,
To have a family for all time and eternity.
It's a comforting thought that I have this blessing,
To be with a family where no one is missing.

A lot can happen in a year

It's crazy to think that one year ago I was in high school. I was just finishing basketball and I was done with it!! YAY! One year ago I graduated from seminary AND high school. One year ago I had the best friend I could ask for. One year ago I had a great relationship with a wonderful guy. One year ago I wasn't confused. One year ago I was in shape and could run longer than 5 minutes. One year ago my nephew wasn't even one year old. One year ago I didn't have such great friends. One year ago I was still in Young Womens. One year ago I was looking into his eyes :) One year ago I wasn't afraid of him leaving. One year ago nothing was screwed up by me. One year ago....

Its crazy how things change in one year. How you can change in one year. I am not sure if I am nervous or excited for this next year to come and go. Excitement and fear both fill my emotional tanks. I don't want time to fly by too fast, but at the same time it would be nice if it could speed up just a little. ( For some odd reason I just thought of "When you find the one you want to spend the rest of your life with you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible" I have no idea why I thought about that.... but I did).

One year ago I didn't have a blog :P

One year ago my sleeping habits were A LOT better than this!! Goodnight :D

I can't sleep

So I am sitting here in my room listening to my family cough and snore the night away. I can't sleep because I took a wonderful 6 hour nap tonight from not getting any sleep last night. Why was I up till 6 am in the morning you ask? Well I will tell...

It all started when Rachel and I went to Shayna's battchelorette (sp?) party. We were having tons of fun! Then 11:30 rolled around and I was ready to go to sleep because I needed to be somewhere at 2 am. So we leave and I take Rachel home and we started talking because we are best friends and that's what we do. So next thing we know, after talking about her boyfriend and my missionary it is 1:20 in the morning and my mom is calling me telling me to get home. That we are leaving in ten minutes. So I go home. I change and run around like a chicken with my head cut off (lovely imagery right? I thought you'd like it) making sure that I get all the things I need. So after the car is loaded and my mother is in the driver seat, we head out to AJ to pick up my older, pregnant sister. We get out there to her house and she and I head out! We are headed to the middle of no where to hand out water to random people running for two days in the wonderful fundraiser called the Ragnar Relay. It's actually really cool. Thousands of people run from flagstaff to Phoenix for two days. Well we get where we needed to be at 3:30, a half hour early :) so we decided to take a nap. Well at 3:50 my phone began to ring. It was the woman in charge of the relay telling us that she didn't need us anymore. So we got up, went to where Wendy's husband was sleeping she kissed him while my tush was being frozen and then we drove a whole 2 hours home. It was wonderful! :D So we got to her house and we fell asleep, she made us all breakfast and then I went home at 10 and fell asleep till 4:30 and here I am talking about my 6 hour nap that I regret 5 hours of it. haha.

Now on with the rest of my day. We played 007, I don't know if you have ever played. But it is tons of fun. I was thinking that we should make it more interesting and challenging. But no one seemed to agree with me, at least not the majority. I had fun running, singing and dancing in the rain though. I wish my missionary was here though. He loved that game and we always had the best time going. Just because he would yell "spotlight" and I would jump behind a bush or a wall and he'd bust out laughing. Punk!! :D haha good times.

I love the sound of rain. I wish that I could have just sat outside and listen to it all night, but knowing Mesa's moody weather, it would turn off and on every ten minutes, or even shorter. That and my neighborhood probably isn't the safest, but that happens. The soft pitter-patter of the rain hitting the roof and the ground. I love watching it fall so gracefully in the light of the street lamp, envious of how it falls through the air. Wishing that I could follow its example and just fall... fall in love.... fall out of love... what is falling in love?! Why do we calling it falling IN love? A good friend of mine says that he doesn't believe in falling in love, you can't fall in love someone, but you can BE in love with someone (he was a lot better and voicing his opinions than I am).

I am so tired I'm just rambling now... I think I'm going to go lie in bed and just wait for sleep to come take over.

Goodnight faithful bloggers, may sweet words fill your thoughts tonight as you sleep.

First (random) Blog!!

Well it is 1 AM and I decided to actually Blog something. I'm not tired and I feel like I need to talk... So what better than here to do so? So I just spent the last hour reading Annie's page and I loved it and it seemed like fun to Blog so I decided to Blog. But I'm not sure what I want to Blog about. So bear with me if you are reading this.

Basketball is my favorite sport, some people will disagree but who cares? I have played it since I was in the 7th grade and I love it with all my heart. When I got to basketball games and sit on the sidelines it drives me insane because I would much rather be playing than cheering, at least on the bleachers and not on the bench. I wanted to try out for College but I got out of shape way too fast and I think I might be too lazy and not motivated to get back into shape (which is really bad because I hate it when people are lazy... I hate my laziness right now hahaha)

Singing, I love to sing. You will hear me singing everywhere I go. If I'm not singing out loud then I am most likely singing in my head. When I am in the car and there is a good song on, whether it be country, pop, classical rock or classical music, I am not ashamed to turn it up LOUD and jam out!! I wish I would have been more confident with my singing. I have always been nervous to sing in front of people. I wanted to be in honor choir so bad!! (In fact I believed that I was a better singer than some of the people that were actually in honor choir and people told me (who were in honor choir) that I was better than some people) But I just couldn't relax enough to sing in front of Harris for some reason. I don't know why I was so intimidated by that man! I wish I didn't care what he, or the rest of the class, thought. I would have had an even BETTER senior year than I already had.

Von, pretty much my best friend EVER and I miss him terribly and love him... and can't wait for him to come back... That's all I should say (although I just wrote a WHOLE paragraph about how wonderful and amazing I thought he was.... but I didn't think I should put that on here)

Ice cream. Pretty much my favorite food EVER!! Period!!!

Family. I love my family. There is so much that we have been together through. I am so glad that I was born into this family because I don't think I could have made it if I were in any other family. I love my mom so much! We get along really well. We love watching TV together because we like watching the same things. My dad may act tough, but he's really just a big teddy bear. My sister Julie died when I was 13, but she was TONS of fun! We would always do crazy fun stuff with her! We always went to Sunsplash with her! She was a free spirit. My sister Wendy I look up to. She is independent, beautiful, smart and knows what she want's in life. She is also a great mother and a good listener, when she isn't teasing me about something. We are "twins separated by 10 years" and I love it. My brother Wayne passed away when I was 6, but I remember that I loved him and that he loved me. We played a lot of games together. My sister Jeani, I love her! She is the super artist in our family! She isn't afraid to voice her opinion and does it often. My big little sister Jayme is a sweetheart and I am glad that she is my sister :) I love my family SO much!!

Friends, I love friends! "Friends are the family you are allowed to choose." I agree 100% and more! hahaha. My friends my be a little different but that's what makes them SO AWESOME! I wouldn't have it any other way! Right now I'm not sure who my best friend is. I have a lot of friends that I turn to about things and it's getting annoying cuz I can't remember who I told what. I used to have a best friend that I could confide in no matter what. But she has found someone more important than me and I'm trying to accept it but it's hard. Especially when they start dating and she leaves you there crying.... Literally....

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Pretty much the best church EVER! It may sound like I'm kidding, but I'm serious. This church and its teachings have helped me so much in my life. I am a child of God and He loves me. There is nothing I can't do without Him. I have no idea where I would be with out the church, I am so glad that I live in the time where it is on the earth so that I can learn all that I can about it. I love this church.

Night Owlism.... I think it should be a disease! Because I have it!! I cannot fall asleep and look how late it is!! 1:29 AM! I guess this is better than just laying awake in my bed missing and thinking of Von. Which I would kind of rather be doing than this :) maybe I'll write a whole blog about him one of these nights :) we'll just have to see... or at least you will. I know whether or not I will write about him. I pretty much told you almost everything in the paragraph above, but oh well....

I should get some shut eye. I'm going to go hit the hay.... Why do people say that? I guess it sounds better than 1"I'm going to go hit the springs!" hahaha whatever random thought.

GOODNIGHT!!