confession time.

Happy Weekend, Friends!

(Ahem) 

Ok. Confession time. I have a few secrets to let you all in on. 

Confession #1: 

One of the reasons I've been taking dance classes at BSU is because I've been preparing for an audition.

Confession #2: 

I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to add too much pressure on myself. There's nothing like having to tell all of your friends and family when you've been rejected. (Frowny Face.) 

I wanted to avoid that situation if at all possible.

Confession #3:

I auditioned for the Graduate Modern Dance Program at the University of Utah on March 11th.

Confession #4:

 I got my letter in the mail 10 days later. 

{Gid woke me up at 7:30 in the morning to tell me the news, and I ran out to the mailbox (half asleep and in my pajamas), grabbed the letter stared at it for about 3 minutes. After letting my heart calm down a little, I opened it (as gideon video taped me like a proud grandfather).}

Confession #5: 

I was accepted. 

{Exclamation Mark.}

Confession #6: 

That's not all. 

{Exclamation Mark. Exclamation Mark.}

Confession #7: 

I was selected to receive a full scholarship for the Integrated Movement Studies Program. 

{Exclamation Mark. Exclamation Mark. Exclamation Mark.}

Confession #8: 

That means I start my studies in Salt Lake City in June. 

{You read that right. June. As in 12 weeks from NOW.}

Confession #9: 

I cried just a teensy bit when I opened the letter; I'm so excited I can hardly breathe.

So there it is, friends! Our lives are taking an entirely different turn and we can hardly wait. Gid and I are going to miss our boise family that we've developed over the past 2 years, but we look forward to starting this new season of excitement soon.

Confession #10:

 I have the best husband in the world, and I love him more than anything.
{But that's not really a confession as much as a statement.}

At first I really didn't want Gid to video my opening of the letter, but I'm really happy that we can share it with close friends and especially family (especially you, mom). I'd like to put in a formal disclaimer that I literally had just woken up (you can tell which side of my head I was sleeping on) and made no effort whatsoever to get ready because the only thing in the world I was interested in at this moment was the contents of this letter.

Enjoy, friends.

ps- isn't it sweet how excited gideon is? 
I know it sounds like he's more excited than me, but we're actually equally excited. 
He was just more awake than I was.

Tender Mercies

After a delightfully exhausting weekend,

Gid and I had to come back to the real world. My sweet hubby was able to sleep in, as he didn't have work on monday, but I, not only had work- I had to come early, and stay late. Our office did a special in honor of Independence Day where all patients who came in received a gift certificate for a free massage. It was like a circus from 7 am till about 7:30 PM when I, (defeated) got in my little car to make the journey home. As I turned the ignition on, I noticed my tires are low on air.

I felt equally deflated.

I pulled out of the parking lot, and proceeded to feel sorry for my poor, tired, overworked self.

About 5 miles before I got home I noticed something different about the weather. It looked like it was a little rainy. But there were no raindrops. Then I thought perhaps there was snow in the air (it's possible in Idaho). Nope- not snow.

Something was actually coming down now, like the most magical and least threatening storm in the world. I thought for a moment it was blossoms. But all the blossoms have gone to sleep till spring.

Now it was coming in huge batches, floating weightlessly through the wind and landing gently on my windshield. Piles of it gathered on the curbs of the streets.

I recognized it now. It was cotton.

I grew up in Lubbock, TX -home of one of the largest cotton plants in the world. Texas ships more cotton than any other state, and Lubbock processes 95% of the beautifully while, fluffy product.

So, growing up in the Lone Star State, when you saw white fluffies floating down softly in a warm sunny downpour, you simply knew it was harvesting season.

Most days, I don't miss Texas as much as I just miss my family. But lately, I've been missing collectively everything about Texas.

I don't miss the unbearably hot days, or the crazy drivers, or the lame drama that somehow lingers among people who seem to be forever stuck in high school.

But I do miss the sunrises and sunsets.

I miss my backyard, with the huge trees

(which I seem to remember as much bigger)

and the colorful leaves that adorn them every fall.

I miss my friends.

I so miss my family.

And sometimes, I miss the wisps of cotton in the air during the harvest season. I miss the magic of snowlike things floating during summer.

Even if they do make me sneeze.

I thought cotton only flew like snow in Texas. Apparently it does in Idaho as well.

There are two explanations of this miracle:

-On the week that I happened to be missing my home and family more than I have since being married, someone, somewhere in Boise Idaho happened to be harvesting cotton close enough to my little home that it happened to shower me in a most welcome ambush.

-My Father in Heaven loves me so much that he allowed me the most lovely tender mercy of being reminded of home, and even, transported me there for the tiniest moment as I went through memories of years and years of Texas Summers.

I think it was the latter explanation.

"The Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly the Lord suits his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men."

-David A. Bednar