One year down

2009 is almost over. My, it was a year. With the much excitement it brought it also drug up a lot of hardness, which is supposedly making me stronger. But as I sat in my kitchen--wait, that's a lie. I was standing. As I stood in my kitchen, admiring my collection of plastic bags sitting in my kitchen chairs full of groceries, I couldn't help but think that this year was rather boring aside from one particularly big event. So I racked my little brain and dug through my journal to remember exactly what I've been through in the last year and what I learned.

• I celebrated the beginning of 2009 with my fiance. Sitting on the couch in my parents living room I thought about how the next New Years I'd be married to that man who sat next to me holding up my dozing head.
• I won a smile make-over from Utah Valley Magazine that helped me have a beautiful smile on my wedding day. (Thank you, Katie!)
  
• I moved out and lived on my own for the first time.
  
• I completed my third semester at BYU with the highest GPA I've ever had in college.
• I got married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple to the love of my life.
• I went to Disneyland with someone I really like for my honeymoon. Last time I went to Disneyland I was with another person I really like. (Hi, Kass!) Coincidence? Disneyland must be full of likable people.
• I finally got old enough to not be considered a teenager.
• I. . . started this blog?
• I started learning about being young, married, and poor. I walked to work all summer in holey shoes, and I learned ziplock bags and wax paper and window blinds and TV and hot water are luxury items.
• I learned that just because you can doesn't mean you should, and sometimes what you should do you just can't.
• I met a guy named 'Patience'. We are not friends yet.
• I felt real homesickness.
  
• I sat and watched my academic aspirations fly away with my lack of tuition money. I mourned for loss of some old dreams like being a high school teacher or finishing college before I'm dead.
• I experienced God's grace when I was called to teach 16-17 year old Sunday school. I realized he knew my sorrows-- He still loved me and wanted me to know that I will be a teacher, though I might not be teaching English and it might not be in a school.
• I found that the fastest way to mend a broken heart is to be held by a man that so completely loves you while you pray for strength to choose happiness
• I struggled with depression for the first time in my life. And I rose out of it too, thanks to lower-dosed hormones. . .
  
• I began my career in baking cakes and quickly ended that career after seeing what my two hands were/weren't capable of.
• I washed 284 loads of dishes by hand.
• I threw away 12 leftover dishes of moldy food concoctions that no one could eat. (Like beef ground turkey stew.)
• I celebrated my first married Christmas with my family and then Paul's. It was a heap of fun. I plan on doing it again some time.
• I realized just how blessed I really am by having amazing people around me who have been the means to a lot of answered prayers.

Hopefully next years list includes a pregnancy. . . Just kidding, Mom. Don't look at me like that.

Happy New Year!