Love Month

I love love. Really I do. If there's anything to know about me, it's how much I LOVE love. It's perfect! Sometimes it's awful and hurts like heck, but I am a strong believer of love overcoming all! There are all kinds of love, but to me, February is about LOVE love. you know... boy meets girl kind of love.

Love can, does and will last forever. I think that the notion of loving lasting as long as this life, is the worst thing ever. I CANNOT comprehend the idea of a Heavenly Father who would have us build such amazing relationships, for us to be left all alone in the end!

Another thing I think is that the right love is worth EVERYTHING. Yes there are temporal things in life that might seem more important, but at the end of the day, the things that make this life are memories and the wonderful people that we are blessed to share them with.

Granted, I have never been in love myself, so I can see how I would be relatively unqualified to talk about this subject. But I don't care. This is my blog, and I'm a HOPELESS romantic. For me, love is the one thing that makes everyone the most vulnerable. Why else would it be called falling. You don't step into love. Or skip into love. You have to become dependent on someone and that's scary.

But so worth it.

I think.

I hope.

Well in being the optimist that I am, I'm constantly looking for moments that show that love is real and GOOD.

I recently read about a photographer called Lauren Fleishman who embarked on a project that shows love at it's best. Here are just a few of her images, and I think you should definitely check out the amazing thing that she's doing. It's called love ever after

Now imagine these couples over fifty years ago, in that amazing moment when they realized that they wanted to spend forever with one another. I'd think it would look a little something like this...

 

This would be my roommate Candace Emerson, and this week her best friend asked her to marry him. I have never seen such an AMAZING example of love and two people being so RIGHT. It wasn't forced, or naive, it was just right.

So living with a bunch of girls... you can only imagine our feelings...

So after the excitment of Candace's engagement, and the AMAZING time I had at my friend Carlie's Bridal Shower...

It's pretty safe to say that love is definitely in the air

Just as it should be.

Secrets and Lies Equate to... SURPRISE?

Well it has been an EXTREMELY long time since I blogged last, and yes, I have been very busy, so ready for a quick catch-up?

YES I WENT BACK HOME TO LONDON, ENGLAND!!!

All the whining about missing my friends and missing home, (EVEN ON HERE) was a big act to make sure that NOONE knew that I was coming home! Especially my mother!! I had known since late October, that I would be blessed with the opportunity to go home, but I thought what better way to do this, than surprising my mum! She had absolutely NO idea. Whatsoever!! I will tell you all about the adventures and things that I got up to, so here we go:

I left Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday 18th December with Brittany and Ben Teare, and Rem and Megan Bassett, and we had a blast! Although the flight was FOUR hours to Texas before another NINE hours home, we survived and were met by Dad B at the airport!

So I had planned with my cousin and one of my bestest friends Eliza, that she would tell my mum that SHE was coming over (to make sure that she was at home) and so she was expecting company.

So I met Eliza at a tube station and we got a ride home. Eliza walked to the door, and my mum has this awful habit of opening the door and standing outside before guests arrive... anyway Eliza was in front of me with a camera taking a video, and here are some snapshots of the results :)

JUST BEFORE WE GOT TO THE DOOR!!

SO that was the first day! Pretty great I know, Honestly sneaking around has never been more rewarding!!

So what did I do the rest of the time! Well seeing as I was only there for a short time, I had to make good use of my time and see as many people as humanly possible! So there was lots of visiting family and friends, and really just trying to take it all in! It was pretty overwhelming!

I arrived on Monday, and the next day I was in Camden, and who should walk past but Arinola. Only my best friend! It was so great. Both of us dropped our current plans immediately and spent the whole day together (and Eliza joined us) it was such a great time just taking in the beauty, and hustle and bustle of London!! That night... I surprised Mummy Dot! I don't have any photographic evidence but again, it was a great moment.

On the Wednesday I made the big trip out to Dartford to see another best friend of mine...

The BEAUTIFUL Charlotte Warner! I went to youth with her, then spent the next day with her and some other friends too! It was a day filled with unforgettable reactions, sad goodbyes and special moments that I won't forget! :)

So it was back to London and getting things done like SHOPPING, cooking for Christmas and just enjoying being around my family.. especially these little ones:

Meet my new foster siblings Lloyd and Rosie. They're pretty great!!

And of course there was a VERY important person that I had to see. Oh you know, just the best friend for 11 years and counting...

We spent some time (NOT ENOUGH TIME) but some WELL NEEDED time together which was great!!!

We hit the Stratford Westfield Mall (INSANE) and of course the wonderful Nandos on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day I went back to my home ward, which was an AMAZING moment!! And I can't express the joy I had in seeing so many people! Especially my gorgeous Mojo twins, Ritchie, and Gee!!

Then we went home, had dinner and I slept for about 8 hours before watching the Eastenders Christmas Special... Proper Crimbo.

My last week home just FLEW by!! I did some much needed shopping and more visiting and more shopping etc, and the week nearly came to an end! But there was no way that I would leave England without some much needed Tzevet time with my Channing Girls!!

We met for dinner at Dim T (the lunchtime classic) and it was SO great to see the friends that I had spent the last SEVEN YEARS with!!! I missed them so so much!

 

Well this was my penultimate night in England, and the rest of the time I spent with my family.

It was such a great experience and I was SO happy!! I had missed London, and it was great seeing how everyone had grown in some way, yet NOTHING had changed in so many other ways!!

I'm pretty glad to be back in the States, but having that little slice of home, really reminded me of all the blessings that I have, and it TOTALLY gave me a reboost for 2012! 

It's a pretty good feeling!

LILIA

This should be pretty easy ;)

Love It

• FINALS ARE OVER!!!! There is freedom and a pure, overwhelming and undeniable sense of joy within me now. I don't even have a picture to document how much joy there is in me right now, I'm pretty sure that a camera lens wouldn't be able to cope with the HAPPINESS radiating from my ENTIRE BEING.

• I get to leave Rexburg! And whilst I've enjoyed the past few months in this sleepy little town... I'm ready to BUST OUT OF HERE. However a few nights ago, I did manage to capture a little moment, as the sun was setting on a cold evening here in the 'Burg, and it reminded me of the beauty that can come, even in those cold moments.

• BYU-Idaho sure knows how to bring the Spirit of Christmas! It was so great being here for that experience, and what a better way to end the semester than with these wise words from President Clark.

 

Love It Anyways

• Well it's tough to find negative things when FINALS ARE OVER. But I guess there is one thing. The end of the semester comes with people leaving who aren't coming back :( Like Edo. I'm sad because I hate goodbyes. A lot. But these really are just "see you laters" Edo lives in Cali, so Spring Break visit with my main mandem? I think yes.

Edo and I at a super swanky classy Christmas Party

• This time last year... I wore the same outfit... different occasion

 

I guess I just miss my friends... a lot

Aren't we adorable...

FINALly :)

So if you know anything about me, you'll know what finals week means.

Stress

Crying

Junk food... lots of junk food

Lack of sleep

But as soon as it's over I'm back to the happy, relatively person that you are all much more acquainted with. So I'm not going to say much about the past week, but I will say how I feel now.

I am filled with GRATITUDE and APPRECIATION for the experiences that I have had and have been a part of.

They have not all been good. In fact, for the most part, this is not they way that I imagined the semester would be, but I am so grateful for the many things that I learned and for the PERSONAL GROWTH I feel like I have had.

This little lady is ready for a well deserved break.

MY DAY.

 

This describes my day.

So I guess there's a lot of reading to do this week folks, but I just couldn't let this Friday go by without another Love It... Love It Anyways :)

Love It

• I'm watching The Santa Clause as we speak.

BERNARD

• I have great friends. Great, great, great friends. Last night we celebrated Spencer's birthday and it's pretty safe to say that we know how to party.

I was a big fan of the theme by the way ;)

• SIXTEEN DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!! I was sat next to this beautiful tree in the Benson building and couldn't help taking a picture! So I did, and I'm kind of in love with it. It "looks like a Christmas card".

Love It Anyway

• It's freezing. FREEZING. It's been around 15 degrees farenheit, which is MINUS 9 for my friends back home.  cold. BUT... more hot chocolate for me? I think yes :)

• F.I.N.A.L.S. there is no need to expand. BUT... one step closer towards graduation? I think yes. 

I love it when that list is short!!! 

Just Do It

So this week, I've had a lot of experiences that have led me to think that after a while, you've got to remove abandon all of your fears, and just do it.

What is IT? Well this well for me this week, IT was talking to someone who looked like they were crying.

Weird, I know, but I have this problem... I can't walk past someone who is crying without wondering why it is that they're crying. Happy...sad...hungry... I just want to know why. Curiosity? Nosiness? Either way that's just they way that I am. So I saw a person crying, and I wanted to say something, but I thought... "No, that's just too weird, they have no idea who I am and it's really none of my business", so I didn't say anything. Two days later, same person, crying again... "Ok, I should probably say something... but how? how do I explain my ultimately stalker-like behaviour?"

I honestly fought with myself for about 30 minutes, and I just felt so uneasy that I decided to lay all of my fears away, and JUST DO IT.

So I went up to this person (extremely awkwardly) and didn't mention the crying... I started a conversation with them. So you're wondering if I made a life changing contribution to this person's life. Umm no. They weren't even crying. Apparently its SNIFFLE season and everyone sounds like they're crying.

So do I feel silly? Like I wasted my time? Like I embarrassed myself for no reason? Not at all I actually sat down and laughed to myself at the situation, wondering why I had been so prompted to talk to this person who clearly didn't need anything from me.

I realised that it was a lesson in just letting go of fears and apprehensions, and finding the strength in myself to JUST DO IT. So I wanted to share that. Our ITs are going to be different. And obviously there are good ITs and bad ITs... we probably shouldn't do the bad ones.

But you'll recognize the good ones. You won't be able to shake it. AT ALL. And that's when you know.

JUST DO IT.