A comfortable spot

That's where I am right now. I feel very content with life in general. School will be starting in less than a month, which is so exciting, but I'm happy to have that month, too.


Before I came home I fully anticipated this summer being the worst summer OF my life. During March I started getting really worried, just thinking about how terrible it was going to be, and in April I had pretty much worked myself up into a frenzy about it. And when I came home, let's be honest, May sucked. ughh. I was very annoyed to be home. I just wanted to be back in Utah. I couldn't wait for school to start again. But in June, a couple things happened that I think made all the difference.


That is when I got my nannying job and my telemarketing job, and suddenly I started doing much better. I really consider myself very blessed to have these jobs. As much as I sometimes hate telemarketing, it is a good job for me. I choose my own hours, which is pretty much whenever I'm not nannying. So I have only been getting in like five hours of telemarketing a week....which really, how many places would actually think that's acceptable, for an employee to come in 5 hours a week? And admittedly it gets pretty boring, and it's kind of mind-numbing when I don't talk to anyone for a few hours, but it isn't super-strenuous and I actually do enjoy it when I make appointments.

I also consider it a blessing that I am working for Merriweather this summer. Working the Taylor Swift concert honestly made it all worth it! I love how disposable I am there because I don't need to work when I don't want to, but if I want to work a concert I'm totally welcome to.

And then of course there's piano, which I teach to my across-the-street neighbor, my little brothers and sisters, and my mom. We will be having a little piano recital at the end of the summer. I really should be more consistent at teaching everyone, every week but believe it or not, I think it's harder when you live with your students. Anyway my point is I'm excited for the recital because I don't know when I'm going to teach piano next. I'm planning to stay in Provo next summer and every summer from now on, so if all goes well with that, this could be the last recital I organize in a long time. Which I'm kind of okay with, but it's still a nice little way to end my last summer at home, I think.

Another thing that happened in June is Jake going into the MTC. The weeks leading up to his first day there were prettyy terrible. I just felt distraught and achy. But I am absolutely amazed by how happy I have felt since he's been in the MTC. I read his letters and I can tell he is a fantastic missionary. I know that he is exactly where he is supposed to be and knowing that makes me so happy. I never imagined that I would be able to feel this much happiness from something that is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I thought that it would be so so hard, and I would just feel comforted knowing, deep down, that Jake is doing something that we both believe in, but that's not really the case. I really cannot bring myself to feel sad when I think of him. I know this is such a great blessing and I am so grateful for it.

So I've gotten into a routine that I really really like. I wake up, I go to nannying. At some point I usually take a nap while I'm there. Then I either go home or I go to telemarketing, depending on the day. During my free time, I write letters, scrapbook, talk to my sisters, read, work out, or facebook. On Saturday, I always figure out something fun to do. On Sunday, the pesticide boys come over for dinner. I love Sunday dinner. Now Joshua and Troy are gone :-( but we still have Jordan and TJ!

I guess technically, I work more than 60 hrs a week. Holy crap I just now took the time to calculate that....and it sounds like so much but it doesn't feel like it! Especially since I have naptime during the week and Saturday and Sunday off :-) Anyway, I need this last month at home. I just figured out all my money stuff and I am so excited because this summer I'll be earning enough money to pay my tuition for fall, winter, and spring term. I'm planning on getting a job during the school year anyway, so that works out perfectly! But, I do still need to work this last month.

At the same time, while I'm enjoying this summer, I am excited for school. I love BYU more than I can even express. I love my friends out there. I am thrilleddd that I get to go there and I'm so excited for the classes I've signed up for for next semester. So when the summer ends, I'll probably feel a little sad, but I'll get over it pretty quickly I think.

And that is why I'm in such a comfortable spot now. I love where I am. I am happy to be going at the pace that life is going.

In other news, Troy and Joshua are gone....whattt??? They left on Wednesday morning :-( It was a sad day for all. All the boys in the Sunday dinner crew came over to our house for a Belgian waffle breakfast at 7 am and then I headed off to nannying. I guess I wasn't too too sad because we decided that we (Kelly, me, Joshua, and Troy) are going to have regular lunches when we are out at college. They're going to LDSBC so we won't be able to take any classes together, but we are determineddd to have lunches. So I'm excited.

Last night I witnessed something in my home that I think does a splendid job of describing how things work in my family. Everyone was gathered downstairs in the basement for scriptures and prayer and all was going well. Anyone looking in might have mistaken us for a normal family, calmly reading the scriptures together. Then all of a sudden, my dad made some comment involving a hippo, and that was the cue for Nicole to burst into singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Everyone caught the spirit and she successfully led the whole family in a rousing rendition that was not even cut short by our dad. (I still don't really know why. He is usually staunchly opposed to such displays of musical talent disrupting his scripture study. But whatever, apparently not tonight.) No one so much as batted an eyelash when Nicole started singing. And when the chorus finished up, we resumed our scripture study as though everything was normal.

And I guess, in my family, maybe everything was :)