things

something that made me laugh today:

my niece's school is collecting old phone books for recycling, and today on our way to drop her off at kindergarten we stopped by my dad's office because he had a bunch of them to give her. after carrying eight or so phone books to the car, millie's eyes got wide as she proclaimed, "my backpack is going to be heavy today!" my mom and i were rolling on the ground laughing as the image of little millie carrying a backpack laden with eight phone books flashed into our minds. we reassured her that we would help carry the phone books, and she was relieved.

something that made me happy today:

video chat with my lovely friend whitney! she's going into the mtc on february second, and i could feel the excitement/anxiousness ooze from the computer screen as we talked. we talked about missions (it was lovely to reflect back on my mission--the dreadful moments when i wondered why i was there, the perfect moments that made the dreadful moments worth it, and everything in between), we talked about london (how we both miss it, think about it every day, and dream about going back), we talked about other random things (like setting up her brother with my sister, how i'm so excited to write her on her mission, etc). it was a wonderful, uplifting conversation with a wonderful, uplifting friend. whitney is one of those people who is always positive and happy, and she has a gift for helping lift my spirits and realize that life is pretty great, despite getting hit by curve balls more often than not.

two somethings that stopped me in my tracks:

it's not often that two things happen at once that stop me in my tracks, but today it happened on the way back from my nephew ashton's basketball game. we were driving along and my mom commented how red the dirt looked on the side of the road. it sounds strange, but the red dirt is one of the things i love most about living in the desert. it's so earthy and rich, painting the desert a reddish-orange and making it a more colorful place than most. so that was thing number one. number two happened as i looked up from the red dirt and saw three white lines in the sky, left by the exhaust from three jets. i don't know why it struck me, but they were close enough that they looked like they were flying together, and the thought of flying together made me think of togetherness in general and why being close to someone else makes life easier, easier because someone is watching your back while you've got theirs.

anyway, just a few things from my day :)