2010 Holds a Special Place in My Heart

 

Oh my, this year. It was self-changing. I can honestly say that I am not the same person I was 12 months ago. Honestly, I’m not the same person I was 6 months ago. I feel like a new person, growing daily in my walk with God and realizing how beautiful life is.

I feel like I have come so far and everything in the past has been such a learning experience. Here’s a recap of my life over the last year, including a million over-sized pictures! 

January

The birth of Al’s Narratives! Have I really been blogging for a year? It doesn’t seem real! It has been such a blessing in my life, though.

February

After having pledged a “social club” (a.k.a sorority) the semester before, I finally got my Iota Chi jersey in. Oh buddy, I was excited!

March

I was in my first musical, Spring Sing, dancing on behalf of the uncoordinated everywhere. (We won!)

April

I welcomed a sweet new baby into our family. He was round (10 pounds) and perfect.

May

The fifth month of the year brought an end to my freshman year of college and the start of my love for running. Looking back, my packed up dorm room looks like a prison cell!

June

It was warm when I left on a jet plane with my best friend to the great state of Utah. Good gravy, I fell in love. Hard. The weather, the people, the mountains! That being said, I fully plan on moving to Utah when I graduate. Seriously.

July

The 1st Annual Girls Trip with my best friends! We went to Panama City Beach, Florida and it was an absolute blast. Beaching, clubbing (sober, of course), shopping, eating (because I have a weakness for seafood.) We created amazing memories.

August

My sophomore year of college began. It was probably the most amazing semester so far! Plus, I’m in a very nice dorm this year. No prison cells for me.

September

One of my very best friends moved to Idaho for school. It was a difficult goodbye.

October

With the cool weather brought my favorite month! It was filled with plenty of autumn activities- painting pumpkins, hay rides, and corn mazes.

 

November

I ran in my first 5k race! It was a good experience and I cannot wait to run in my first half-marathon! It was also the month I said au revoir to my teenage years!

  20th birthday dinner girls!

December

My best friends and I celebrated our First Annual Secret Santa gift exchange! Kaylee also came home from Idaho for a week and it was great to see her face in real life and not just on Skype.

2010,
you were good to me.

Fashion Icon

Jackie O – perhaps the best dressed woman in history, if you ask me. Wasn’t she a total betty?

When I imagine myself housewifing, I look just like this:

           

Are your palms sweating over that yellow coat? Oh, the buttons! Oh, the high-waist tie! What about the salmon colored dress with the bow?

And the pearls!

And the hair!

I was totally born in the wrong era. I was meant to be a housewife 50 years ago.

I don’t want to hear that it is no longer 1960.

I don’t want to hear that at all.

Shhhh.

1st Annual Secret Santa Exchange

My best friends and I met in my family’s sun room last weekend for our 1st Annual Secret Santa Exchange.

We had big plans for this day. Oh, the big plans.

May they rest in peace.

Seriously though, we planned a big shin-dig. Each of us signed up to bring a Chinese dish (we’re nothing if not cultured) for our dream of dining together and then gifting.

Then I got a frantic call from Kaylee.

“Um, so Morgan and I are going to be late. We’re just now leaving the mall.”

A steady 45 minute drive.

I assured her that it was “okay” and right about that time, Emma showed up on my doorstep.

I ushered her and her ceramic bowl of fried rice inside.

Then, another phone call from Kaylee.

“We’re going to be really late. I locked my keys in my car.”

I assured her that it was “okay” and right about that time, Katie showed up on my doorstep.

I ushered her and her package of raw chicken inside.

 
Modeling the gifts from my Secret Santa. I’m considering getting an agent.

She sauntered into the kitchen to begin preparing her teriyaki chicken. Seconds later,

“Autumn, the chicken is expired.”

Katie, Emma and I exchanged glances.

Obviously, this night was not supposed to be how we planned.

Instead of cooking, we met Kaylee and Morgan at a restaurant and exchanged gifts later that evening.

We’re nothing if not adaptable.

Now, I think we can all agree I was underdressed? 

 

Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas!

****

Sleep well tonight knowing that a fat man with a beard is climbing down your chimney and into your house.

Now’a days they call that breaking and entering.

But who am I to judge?

 

16 and Pregnant: My Guilty Pleasure

My family released a long held breath when I made it through my teenage years without having a baby.

(It must be said: It was never a possibility.)

I have always had an intense love for babies. I’m sure I even loved myself to pieces in 1990 when I made my grand entrance.

I blame this baby fever on the Lifetime movie 15 and Pregnant. It was my favorite movie growing up. Then this, this, this, this, and this happened and forget about it. I was too far gone.

Of all of the teenage pregnancy movies and TV shows I have watched, few have touched me as much as Ashley Salazar’s episode of “16 and Pregnant” on MTV.

In the episode, Ashley makes the heart wrenching decision to give her precious baby, Callie, up for adoption.

It’s difficult to watch her go back and forth on her decision, to see her sign the papers, and to see her suffer as she realizes that the choice she made was a mistake.

On her blog she is very candid and real, and it’s very sad. Here are a few excerpts.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I am going to be completely honest.  I might have said this before, but sometimes I feel like I made the TOTALLY wrong decision.  I feel so angry and horrible and depressed and I cry all the time.  Sometimes I just want to sleep all day and night and never get up.  It’s like my world has been torn in two and I have to stop living.”

“I love her.  I want her.  I would do anything in the world for her.  I don’t know what is right and wrong right now.  I don’t know if it was the right decision.  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  I miss her.”

”I don’t know if I have said this before, but I hate going downstairs at night in the kitchen because it reminds me of how i’d be up multiple times making bottles. I hate running hot water because the sounds and everything remind me of her and doing things for her down there. It’s so weird. I think of it every single time. All I have left of her here is this Chuck Taylor shoe box with her hospital hats in it, her footprints, and I sleep with her blanket every night. It even makes me not want any more kids because I feel it wouldn’t be fair to her. Like, I want her to by my one and only forever, because I didn’t even ever want kids until the love for her opened my eyes.”

This episode has been fresh on my heart for a few days now which is why I am sharing. And because it’s my blog and I can write about whatever I want.

(Wink wink)

Now go watch the episode and let me know if it ripped your heart out.

GO! (Warning: I get demanding when I’m passionate. And when I’m hungry, but that really deserves it’s own post.)

(Pictures belong to MTV/Ashley Salazar, just in case they ever try to sue me. But we’ll cross that road when exec’s from MTV and Ashley Salazar find my blog.)

Thank You For Pointing Out My Misspelling's (and Coincidentally, Misgivings)

Want to know what’s sad?

Why yes Anonymous, it is “cuatro.”
Don’t bother checking to see how I spelled it you curious blog reader you. I spared myself further embarrassment. But what’s sad about this?

I took two semesters of Spanish.

Want to know what else is sad?

My brother and I ventured to Starbucks in the late afternoon yesterday and my caffeine enriched drink had me tossing in bed until 3 a.m.

Side effect: I was 30 minutes late to work today.

Maybe Joseph Smith was on to something?

Want to know what else is sad?

I have listened to Swallowed In The Sea by Coldplay 242 times since October. What? You don’t think that’s sad? Here, take this and call me in the morning.

This just in (via text from Brette):

I digress.

Miscellany Monday

On this third Monday in December, I did not get a lot accomplished. It is winter break, after all. Although that excuse is already old to my mother who heard it 20+ times today.

{Numero Uno} I am constantly looking for new delicious recipes to try out. Especially when I’m home, because I actually have a kitchen. Today I found a recipe for hot chocolate cupcakes. Try and contain yourself. Tomorrow night I will be making these to hand out to family & friends!

{Numero Dos} The last few weeks of school were crazy
ones, stuffed with projects, papers and preparations for finals.
Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of time to tend to my pretty side.
Tonight I plucked my eyebrows & painted my toenails a hot pink.
Just my service to society.

{Numero Tres} I just read this book:

It is simply hilarious. Have you read it? If not, it’s a great book to curl up with and read while you’re off work/out of school. You will thank me, I think.

{Numero Cuatro} I have been looking for dresses
for my club (sorority) spring formal and I will never be able to
decide between these because they are all to die for!
Which one do you like most?

{Numero Cinco} My heart loves this verse!

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7

Have a great week!

To Each Her Own

This is the account of how I reunited with my best friends after 4.5 months of treacherous time apart.

First, Kaylee hitches a ride from Rexburg, Idaho to the great city of Salt Lake in the great state of Utah. A four hour (five with the snow, Kaylee would add) ride with people she does not know, no less. I could not do it. To each her own, I say.

Second, Kaylee sits in the Salt Lake City airport all night because she has a stand-by ticket and by-golly, she was getting to Arkansas. Which she does, because if she did not this story would abruptly end right about now.

Third, Kaylee arrives in the diamond of the south (oh I’m a jokester) and is forced to spend quality time with her parents. Ok, I’m sure she wasn’t forced. But the rest of us were waiting with shaking hands. SHAKING HANDS, mama and papa Duke. Feel guilty.

Fourth, I drive to Katie’s house and she chauffeurs us up the hill, down the hill, and around the bend to Kaylee’s house. I jump out of the car, run to the door, see my long lost Idahoan best friend, and scream.

If you have lost track of who is now present, it’s Katie, Kaylee, Morgan, and Me.

Fifth, we hug and decide to go to Starbuck’s.

Sixth, Emma meets us at Starbuck’s. The five of us together at last. The only thing I can relate the feeling to would be swimming in fluffy marshmallow sauce on a warm spring day in Hawaii. What? You haven’t done that? Like I said, to each her own.

Seventh, we order coffee and sit at a small round table and talk, talk, talk.

Eight, it felt like she had never been gone. It felt like a weekend had passed since the five of us were together last.

What’s that old saying?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Home For The Holidays

 

Finals are over, friends.

That sentence felt great to type. So great, in fact, that I will say it again.

Finals are over.

The words send relaxing vibes through my bones.

After I took my final test this morning, I packed up everything I would need for this month long Winter Break and headed home for the holidays.

Upon my arrival, I was shocked to see a bare Christmas tree in our front room. I immediately turned on Christmas music, prepared some hot chocolate and went to town on decorating the tree.

It’s so relaxing to be home.

Relaxing and boring, but relaxing none the less.

Zephaniah 3:17

“For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs."

Whoever Thought of Finals Should Have a Pepper Squeezed In His Eye

The good thing about college finals week is that you get sweet notes like these in the mail. And the local churches in Searcy whip up free food for us. That’s another good thing.

The bad thing about finals week is that personal appearance tends to go right out the window. Don’t judge me. (And just know I don’t always look like this. You should actually feel privileged that I am this candid on my blog.)

For those in college,
Happy Studying!

For those who aren’t in college,
pray for us who are.

 

See you on the other side!

It’s Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas

What does Harding look like during the most wonderful time of the year?

Oh, what’s that?
You want to know what it’s like to go to this school?

 

 

Absolutely amazing.