Come on, get happy.

Summer-time and crazy cousins make this girl real happy. 

When Matt and I started dating (again) in September he asked me to write him a list of 100 things that make me happy. 

I used to write short lists of things that make my happy in my personal journals, but it had been a while.. 

I'll admit, I thought the request was a little weird and that it might be difficult to do for some reason. 

Turns out, I loved coming up with that list. Tapping into the things in my heart that truly make me happy was a great reminder of how blessed I am. 

Although I originally thought it might be difficult to come up with 100 individual things, I wrote down way more than 100. 

It was more of a service to me to write it than for Matt to have it.  

In what feels like an endless winter, it's easy for me to get into a little funk. This girl needs some blue skies and Vitamin D! How better to keep the winter funk at bay than to remember what brings me happiness.

10 things that make me happy:

1. Getting sucked in to a really great book you almost literally can't put down. (Any suggestions for my next read?)
2. Really chubby babies.
3. The sound of a live orchestra tuning before a performance.
4. Christmas lights. All year long. 
5. Listening to Jim Dale's reading of the Harry Potter books. Books on CD can be insanely boring, but Jim Dale is absolutely brilliant. 
6. Sunday family dinners.
7. My 5th graders already calling Matt my husband. 
8. Seeing my voice students conquer their fears and believe in themselves
9. Learning new repertoire.
10. Renee Fleming rocking my world at the Superbowl. 
11. 18 days.

Ok so that was eleven, but it's hard to stop once I've started!

So tell me, what makes you happy? 

Really, I want to know :)

Fast times...

Alright, I wrote this post while we were in Idaho for New Years and haven't been able to post it just yet. So I'm doing it now. Also, I'm in serious need of a creative outlet and I'm thinking about taking blogging more seriously. And by seriously, I don't mean "outfit of the day" posts, and posts with nothing but selfies. I guess by "serious blogging" I just mean more consistent because life is fun and life is funny and of course, life is always an adventure.

*********************************************************************************

(Written December 30, 2013)

 Looking back at the last 365 days, I'm not really sure how I had time to even breath. It has been one heck (and sometimes hell...) of a year.

So here is the cliche "Year in Review" post because on December 31, 2012 I was in Boise, Idaho with some friends trying to ignore and avoid the little feelings I started having for a guy that was very honest and open about his feelings for me. Now here I am, 365 days later, in Boise, Idaho engaged to the very man I had tried to convince myself would not be good for me and it's kind of awesome and humbling to see how I got here.

January

• Danced to the tune of 2013 with Audrey, Jake, and Tim (who didn't dance, but we like him anyway.)
• My 24th Birthday - Matt was at a surprise dinner my roommates put together for me. My sister said he had hungry eyes for me all night. He says he still has hungry eyes for me. 

Blurry iPhone photos are a gem.

• Matt said he was "backing off" after trying to date me for 3 months so I could have time to figure out what I really wanted. I told him it could be a while. He told me I was worth the wait.

February

• Nearly killed myself  Worked my butt off for my recital preview. 
• With the help of a generous Cindy Dewey and Elizabeth Tait, hosted a Bridal Shower for my lovely friend Kacee. Then she moved away and we cried, nay, sobbed on Cindy's driveway while blubbering our goodbyes. 

March

• Went through the beautiful Logan temple.
• Saw Kacee and Shane sealed in the Boise temple. One of my favorite days.
• Flew to Brazil for spring break the same day as the wedding. 

• Rocked my recital preview. 

April

• 
  Recorded Devotion with The Chamber Singers. By far one of my favorite accomplishments of my time with them.
• Looked forward to graduation. 
• Thought a lot about Matt. 
• Started spending more time with Matt again.

May

• Lay on my deathbed, graduated from college, presented my senior recital, moved out of my apartment all within 48 hours. 
• Lots of dates with Matt. I really like him. He tries to kiss me. I tell him I'm not ready. Ha. Poor guy.
• My favorite brother got married. I always knew he'd be the first one of the Linford siblings to bite the dust.

• I finally let Matt kiss me. He's calling me his girlfriend. It freaks me out.

June

• My summer of EFY begins with weeks in Provo, Texas, and Logan. I love my kids. I love my team.
• Matt is also working EFY on the other side of the country, we won't see each other for 10 weeks. 

July

• Fourth of July Festivities in Star Valley with my family complete with water balloon and shaving cream fights.
• I break up with Matt. 
• EFY in Orem, and at UMass.
• 2 emergency rooms visits. One in Orem, one in Massachusetts. 
• Sara Bareilles's new album comes out and rocks my world. It's the soundtrack to my life.

August

• EFY in Palmyra, New York. I realize I'm an idiot. I say goodbye to the best people I have ever worked EFY with. 
• EFY in Twin Falls, Idaho. With Matt. We walked and talked. He never looked me in the face. I told him I wanted to try again. He said maybe we can work on being friends.
• I go on long, therapuetic drives by myself at night. 
• By the end of the month we are friends again. It's a miracle. We start dating again.
• I get a job at Ellis Elementary School in a Fifth grade classroom. LOVE my job!

September

• Football games.
• Drives up the canyon.
• Love is in the air. 
• Finally realized Matt is the man of my dreams and I want to marry him. Told him how I felt. He was a big fan of that. 

October

• Kept secrets about planning a wedding from pretty much everyone. 
• Met his family. Told his family.
• Dad came to town. Matt and Dad talked. We announced it to the rest of the family. 

November

• Engaged :)
• More Aggie football games.
• Engagement pictures = dream come true.
• Jazz concerts.
• Thanksgiving in Boise

December

• Matt's 25th birthday
• Matt gets his dream job within the Air Force!
• DEATHLY cold in Logan town.
• Lots of hours in the library because Matt's finals are beasts. 
• Christmas in Star Valley
• New years in Boise!

Here's to 2014! A year with more adventures, more love, and more stories to tell.

To Be (rational), or not to be (rational)...

... is actually a question I ask myself on a daily basis. 

Sometimes, this is just how it is.

Lesbihonest. I struggle with Mondays (I'm not the only one, right?). I was feeling pretty great after spending the weekend in Star Valley with my family, then Monday morning came and with it the weight of all my obligations, meetings, lessons... Blah blah blah. Naturally, this feeling caused me to stay in bed as long as possible before I'd have no choice but to scare my 5th graders with my less than acceptable appearance.
It wasn't a hard day by any means, but all day long I was thinking "I'm in WAY over my head with everything." Because I am surrounded by 5th graders all morning and high schoolers all afternoon, I really needed to talk to an adult by the time 6 PM rolled around. After going non-stop from 8 AM to 6:30 PM, I went straight to Matt's house because I like him and he is the voice of reason.

Being the wonderful guy he is, just held me and listened to all my irrational thoughts and concerns and let me vent almost to the verge of tears. He would interject occasionally with things like "I understand" and "it will all work out." (Voice of reason AND eternal optimist...) I went off on so many tangents of things that I was so worried about and frustrated with and at the end of it all I realized the one thing that was just the icing on the cake,"and Chuckie Keeton is out for the season!!"

I don't know how, but within the next 10 seconds we were both hysterically laughing. The kind of hysterics where I wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying. I'm sure Matt was just laughing at me at this point which made everything that much more funny.

And then I felt a lot better.

Looking back, how I felt was incredibly ridiculous. It was just one of those days. At least we got a good laugh out of it in the end.

It's a good thing Matt thinks I'm funny. I'll keep him around for a while.