My Brother--An Answer to Prayer

This week was good and stressful. I was more productive than I had expected. I took a history test and did pretty well. Wendy and I watched the Muppets Movie, that Wendy gave me and we went to the Cacao Bean this Saturday to relax. I should also mention that it's my sister Megan's 20th birthday! I'm glad that she's a member of my family and that she's my sister.


This is my brother and I. He's the one with brown hair.

So I've had this idea for a post for at least two weeks. Clearly, I've gotten distracted a lot since then. Well one of the highlights of this week (besides wedding planning) was getting to talk to my brother Aaron. He is really cool. When I was young, I always wanted to have a brother. I remember that when my mom was pregnant with my sister Megan, that I prayed that she would be a boy so that I could have a cool little brother. Then a few years later, my mom had Aaron. I was happy to FINALLY have a little brother. Eventually my excitement wore off after I realized that we had a large age gap.

Like many siblings, I've always loved him but I've not always liked him. When we were younger, we didn't always get along. First I should explain that my brother is really smart. Originally this was really cool because I could talk to him about intellectually about the stuff I talked to my peers about. Well eventually like any good little brother, he decided to use his intelligence to get on my nerves. Luckily that phase didn't last long.


After that phase we've gotten along pretty well. We talked about lots of random stuff, as memory serves, most of it was imaginary things. Then I went on my mission and everything changed. My family members had changed a lot and I'd hardly heard anything from my siblings. I had to restart my relationship with all of my siblings and my brother was no exception.


It was hard because we didn't have any common ground. So I took some advice from my mom and decided to just hang out with him. We started hanging out at a creek near our home in North Carolina. Since that time we've done a lot of hanging out at that creek. Now we talk discuss temples, politics, fashion (we have strong and sometimes differing opinions about what looks good) and both the Avatar series.


Aaron is my brother and he is a dork just like me. Being his older brother, I've had the opportunity to watch him grow up and to be a part of his life. I've tried my best to set a good example to him and I think that he's done a great job at living the Gospel despite how hard it can be. He is cool, lovable, geeky, and all around a lot of fun. I love my brother and I'm glad to be his brother.

I hope that y'all have a good week! Remember to love your family. Try to find ways to show you that you do!

My Wendy Darling

So these few week have been pretty crazy but pretty awesome. I've been keeping up with work, school, and of course, my darling Wendy. Some of you may notice a post before this. I needed to use my blog to sell a spare ring that I have. So you can ignore the last post.

So over the last several weeks, Wendy and I have gotten to know each other much better and become great friends. We've developed a deep level of friendship that neither one of knew existed. Wendy's been able to meet my crazy family and get to know them better. So now on to the story that most of my readers are waiting for.

A week before my last post, Wendy and I went for a walk as we often do. On the walk, Wendy got nervous and told me that she wanted to talk to me about something but she was nervous to bring it up. I told her not to be nervous and promised that I would not be judgmental of what she said. She told me that really liked our relationship and she'd like for it to become more permanent. I told her that I think that I would like that too but I wasn't sure about it. I explained that I had recently gotten out of a really rough relationship and that I was really hesitant about considering that option. She pleaded with me and told me that she had thought and prayed about it a lot and she felt like it was right. In the end, she convinced me to pray about it. The Lord told me that my relationship with her should continue forward. I was really surprised by that answer; I was totally not expecting it.


Then after a few days and a bit of struggle within myself, I decided to start making things happen. The day before my last post, Wendy and I took her great great grandmother's fused wedding set to the jewler's to get downsized, separated, cleaned, and replated. We got them back within the week. The days prior to getting the ring back, I talked to my parents about our decision. Then I had to ask her parents.... My feelings while asking them for permission are best summarized by the last line of the announcer from the Legend of Korra. Wetting my pants

So.... yeah, it was intense. I now completely understand why my brother-in-law forgot his number. But I obviously got their approval. After getting her approval, my parents requested that we come down so that they could get to know my darling Wendy better. So last weekend, we went down to Utah and they got to know her better and they like her too.


On Tuesday, I finally got everything together to propose to my darling Wendy. I wrote her a poem called “The Greatest Miracle of My Life” and I tore off the last three lines that talked about me proposing to her. I put a little picture of a kiss over it (so that it'd be "sealed with a kiss") and taped it closed. I also printed off a picture of purple tulips because that her favorite type of flowers. I clipped both the poem and the picture to her front door and then knocked. I ran around the corner where they couldn’t see me (I found out later that Wendy answered the door) and made sure that they found it. Then I acted pretty normally all through out the morning and afternoon. On Tuesday's my university has religious fireside at two o'clock which Wendy and I usually attend. We did so on that Tuesday too. After devotional we went to Porter park (Wendy's favorite place and one of our most frequented places). We walked around half of the end of the park until Wendy suggested that we sit down under a pavilion nearby. We did and I pretended to find the piece of paper that had the last three lines on it; I glanced at it and told Wendy that it was for her. As she read it, I got down on one knee. When she had finished, I proposed to my darling. Her reaction was her expression below. And she said YES!!!!

I'm so excited to marry my best friend. As I told her once, I will never call her the girl of my dreams. The girl of my dreams was not nearly as awesome as she is. I hope y'all have a good week!

This is the ring

Here is the ring.

And another shot of it.

This is Mom

So these few weeks have been pretty hectic keeping up with school, working and trying to maintain a social life. I will say that my friendship with my girlfriend, Wendy, has deepened since I last wrote. I'm really glad to have her as my best friend. In these last few weeks my good friend Crystal has gotten engaged and I'm very excited for her. I finished the book "Ender's Game". It was a really well written book and it reminded me of how much I like Orson Scott Card as a writer.

Since today is Mother's day, I am going to write a special post about my mom. In the second grade, there was a time when we had to introduce one of our family members in our class. I introduced my mom by saying, "This is my Mom. She is really gross but cool." Whil we've long ago stopped our competition to try and gross the other person out (which was pretty fun by the way), I still think that she is really cool. Growing up, I was taught by my Dad that I was to always respect my mom. Originally I did mostly out of fear of punishment.

One day when I was about four I was riding with my Mom to go somewhere; she decided to ask me a question about what she could do as a mom. I remember that experience because it was the start (in my mind) of our friendship. Every since then we've gone a lots of cars rides together as our Mom/Son dates. Now I can say that my respect for my mom comes from the fact that she is my friend. My mom has always been supportive of me growing up. While I was working towards becoming an Eagle Scout, my mom really helped encourage and remind me of my goal. Growing up and moving out, I've come to appreciate my mom even more. She works hard and does an amazing job at managing everything that she has to juggle on a regular basis. She also very caring and generous. While she is often shy, she is loyal and supportive friend. I love my mom and I feel very blessed to be her son.

Happiness is Contagious and Is Spread With A Smile

So my last few weeks have been kinda crazy. But in a good way. I went home for a week and brought my girlfriend down to Utah. It was nice to be home around my crazy family and get to play with my little nephew, Nikolai, who is adorable.

I will say that I finished Mockinjay which was good. I'm presently following two TV series, Avatar: Legend of Korra, and Once Upon A Time. Both of them are a bit cheesy but still very well written.

Classes have started back up (for me) and I'm getting the hang of them. I think I'm going to like all of them. I just need to get a lot more sleep before my psychology class.

So I just wanted to take a minute and say that my girlfriend makes me happy. She's happy, positive, and just cute. I like how she too shares my joie de vivre. I watched the latest episode of Legend of Korra before I showed it to Wendy and I thought that it was aoky. Then I showed it to her and I liked it better because of her reactions to everything.

These last few weeks, I have felt immensely blessed because of my family, friends, girlfriend and ward. There are so many reasons that I have to be happy that it's really hard to count them. I wish I could express my feelings better but I'll just have to say that I'm very happy where I am right now. I hope that you my readers, find time to count blessings. I know that they're a lot more than you think that are. When you realize how blessed you are thank the Lord and then remember; be happy!

Enjoying the Simple Things

These last few weeks have been interesting. For part of them I was sure that I was getting sick. I will say that I managed to finish the book Catching Fire and then passed in on to my sister Megan. She's started on the last book "Mockingjay" which I'm hoping to read during the break.

I've been slowly regulating my sleep patterns which is good. I've also had a lot of fun with my girlfriend Wendy. I went to a play called Enchanted April twice because it was really cool. I went once with my good friend Chellie and once with my girlfriend. It's about a couple of British ladies from the 1920's who decided to escape on vacation to rent a castle in northern Italy. It's hilarious and deep.

Lately, I've learned just to enjoy the simple things. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For me it always represents home mainly because I been eating them since I can remember. I love the simple contrast of flavors.

I think sometimes we get so caught up in trying to guess the future or make plans and we don't just enjoy the simple things. Lately, I've been doing that and it's been nice. I invite you to enjoy the simple things. They bring a lot more happiness than you know. I hope y'all have a good week!

The Blessing of Serving Others

So this week has been less productive then I wanted it to be. I will be honest and say that for most of the week, I've been moping or trying to avoid thinking about the ache. I have got somethings done but not as much as I'd like. It's been a while since I've been in a serious breakup so I had forgotten what I needed to do to properly handle it. This week I have again really felt the love of our Heavenly Father. Earlier this week I started preparing a lesson for Sunday school that I didn't need to and ended up learning something that I really needed to know. For me, it was tender mercy of the Lord.

This week I got to talk to my Bishop because I asked him for advice about something. It was really nice because I got to express my appreciation for him and he got tell me how much he's appreciated what I've done. It was really nice.

So I'm hoping to take a few pictures this week. I'm sorry, I've been slacking in that area too. I will say that I do like collecting inspirational posters and inspirational quotes. The poster above is one of my favorites. I feel like that's definitely been true in my life. Today was a good day. I directed my ward choir and it was really good. My choir didn't really mess up and the Spirit was definitely present after they had sung. That really made me happy because it was an answer to my prayer.

Yesterday I went to a party held by one of my friends. While I was there, I talked to a girl who had recently gone through a hard breakup. I told her that I'd been through a pretty bad breakup myself. She then asked me lots of questions about breakups. It was one of the few times that I will say that I was happy to have all my experience with breakups! I was so glad to be able to help her. This helped me to know that I was where the Lord wanted me to be. After talking to her, I realized that I knew what I needed to do recover my breakup; I just hadn't been doing that. For me this was another clear reminder of the truth which King Benjamin testified of, that as soon as you keep one of the Lord's commandments "he doth immediately bless you." (Mosisah 2:24) I've learned that in my life. I have also learned that in giving service to others that we are blessed.

I hope that y'all have a good week! I hope that you find some ways to serve others this week.