Calling: I hate calling on the telephone, and I always have. I procrastinate doing it whenever possible. I was in college before I could even call and order pizza, and then it was only out of necessity and not wanting to either eat cafeteria food or starve. I especially hate calling if I am unsure of who I am supposed to talk to on the other end, or if I don’t have a complete work-up in my mind of how the conversation should take place. In general, I would suppose I am much better at expressing myself in writing than in real time. There’s no delete button on my mouth, unfortunately. Luckily, I was born in the technological age, so if I can do it over the computer, I will! See also: Phones, Phobias.
Cheese: My favorite food. I think if I ever become lactose intolerant, I would probably have to drive off a cliff, instead of face a life of no cheese, or cheese substitutes. Favorite cheeses: Colby Jack, Pepper Jack, Muenster & Gorgonzola.
Childhood Memories:
1983 – Wore Beautiful Butterfly costume to preschool.
1985 – Became a big sister and got my first cabbage patch doll.
1986 – Learned to ride a bike and started Kindergarten while my parents were out of town, rafting the Colorado River.
1987 – Went to Disneyland for the first time.
1988 – Got my ears pierced.
1990 – Got two kittens, named them Lady & Tramp.
1992 – Parents divorced. Moved to Portland.
1993 – Moved back to Klamath Falls. Started Junior High.
1995 – Started High School – loved Freshman year. Got involved in every activity known to man.
1996 – Had my first open knee surgery. Quit trying to play soccer. Got involved in dance instead.
1997 – Got one of my only lead roles at the local community theater – Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
1998 – Participated in Junior Miss Scholarship Pageant. Won the Top Academic award, the Be Your Best Self Essay Award, and was a finalist. Got more scholarship money than the actual winner.
1999 – Senior year. Found ways not to go to class, but made straight A’s. Figured out how to do the minimum amount of work to get by. Would be a foreshadowing of my modus operandi in college and beyond. Was president of the National Honor Society and the Senior Class, therefore locking me in to planning my 10 year reunion. Should have thought that through sooner! Got baptized. Graduated. Left for college.
Church: I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. See also: Convert.
Cody: My brother’s name. He was born when I was 4 and 1/2 years old. I’d been begging for a younger sibling, but mostly wanted a sister. In fact, after two ultrasounds, I was told I was getting a sister. I was highly confused when they told me I had a baby brother, and I don’t think I ever really forgave him. The night he was born, my grandparents also gave me my first Cabbage Patch doll, name Linnea, who then became Cody’s twin. When Cody got a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament, so did Linnea. It was years before I realized that they weren’t really twins.
College: I attended The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA. I graduated in 2003 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Music. I then attended Seattle University where I earned my Masters of Arts in Student Development Administration in 2007.
Comments: Any blogger’s addiction. After every post, I’m always checking to see if anyone comments. The funny thing is, the posts where I encourage people to comment usually end up getting the least! Hmmm… interesting.
Conservative: I generally align myself with most conservative principles, especially when it comes to fiscal policy. I appreciate the liberal point of view, and understand the compassion associated with it, but in general do not think it’s practical. For all intents and purposes, I most closely identify with the libertarian philosophies, though I would never belong to a third-party, because I am a strong two-party system proponent. I love love love having political and philosophical discussions and debates, but generally don’t because most people shy away from them. Only recently have I become brave enough to put myself out there as a conservative because in most of the settings I have found myself (i.e. college), there is little room for open minded discussion with someone of the conservative persuasion. See also: College, Libertarian, Liberal, Moderate.
Convert: I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at age 17 as a senior in high school. From the time I was very little, I accepted most of the tenants of main stream Christianity. I believed in Christ as the savior of the world. It just seemed natural to me. I had friends often invite me to go to church with them, and I always jumped at the opportunity.
By the time I was in junior high, I decided that I needed to find a spiritual home-base. I was often embarrassed that I didn’t have a greater knowledge of the gospel – that my friends could quote scriptures or bible stories, and I couldn’t. So I started searching for a church to which I could belong. I tried out a number of different Wednesday night youth groups, and often went to church with them on Sunday. At each church I found bits and pieces that I loved, and other things that I just didn’t understand. I longed for a church in which I could believe one hundred percent – no reservations. To me, it didn’t make sense that you would only accept certain parts of a religion. How could you honestly believe a certain religion to be “true” if you disagreed with specific parts? And if you didn’t believe it to be “true,” why would you bother wasting your time going?
So throughout my searching I started developing a list of things I believed, about the nature of God, and about the history of the Christian church. It wasn’t anything I’d ever written down, just something that I made mental note of.
I went to the Baptist church, and had lots of fun, but never felt very at home. I was not fellowshipped enough to get to know people very well. I went to the Evangelical Free church, and had a great time. I was turned off, however, when one of the girls there told me how sad it was that my close friends (who happened to be Mormon) would be going to hell because they weren’t saved by Christ. This made no sense to me, because the God I thought I knew would not cause anyone who lived as righteously as my friends did to spend eternity in hell, just because they chose the wrong church.
So eventually, I settled in at the Lutheran Church. It was right next to my high school, and I had many friends and teachers who went there, and I enjoyed participating in their wide and varied musical ensembles. I struggled to understand some of the things they did, though. For one, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t take communion every week – wasn’t it more important than to just do occasionally? For another, I could not wrap my head around the concept of the Trinity.
But I continued to go there for awhile, making a mental note of what I did and did not agree with. One hang up for me with all the churches was the fact that God no longer spoke to people on the earth today as he had to the people in the Bible. Why were we any less important? This question almost made me lose my faith that God even existed.
During these years of searching, I had befriended a young man who I learned was “Mormon.” I became very close to his whole family, including his older and younger sister, and his mom. Though I knew he was “Mormon,” I really had no idea what that meant. Other friends told me strange things about Mormons – that they owned the “Coca-cola” company but were not allowed to drink it; that they wore strange underwear; that they were not allowed to do anything on Sundays – even drive. At one point, on a band trip to Portland, my friend pointed to the Portland Temple and said “That’s my church.” I was completely befuddled – we lived 5 hours from Portland. How in the world did he attend church there, especially if they were not allowed to even drive on Sundays?
Nevertheless, I loved this family, despite the weird things I heard about Mormons. In fact, none of those rumors seemed to fit with the image they portrayed to me. When I would drive in the car with his mom, she would take a sincere interest in my beliefs, and ask me about them. She was never pushy about her own religion and truly just cared about getting to know me for who I was and what I believed. That did more to get me curious about their religion than anything.
I remember one day when I was leaving their house, and I was filled with a love and peace that I didn’t feel in anyone else’s home. I remember thinking to myself, “I’m going to be Mormon someday.” To me, all that meant was that I wanted what they had, especially in my family relationships. I envisioned myself becoming Mormon sometime when I grew up – after college or something.
But it seemed the Lord had been planting his seeds for long enough and was ready to reap his harvest. In the fall of my senior year of high school, I was part of a select group of students taking a band trip up to Seattle. I was the only girl. Luckily, I was good friends with the guys on the trip, but as the only girl from my school, I was going to have to room with people I didn’t know from other schools.
On the trip up to Seattle, my friend was reading a book, and was completely engrossed. I thought it might have something to do with his church, but I wasn’t sure. We were getting close to our destination when he finished the book and put it down with a satisfied sigh. I was curious and asked him what he was reading. And then came those fateful words, “It’s a good book. You should read it.”
I had nothing better to do during the trip, in the times that we had to be in our rooms. Plus I was curious, so I eagerly agreed to read it.
The book was called “The Greatest Quest.” It was a fictional adaptation of a true story of four college students that get together to find God and his true church on the earth. The friends develop a list of biblical evidences of how Christ’s church would be structured if it were on the earth today, and then they take their list to all the churches they can find, to see if the true church exists. Eventually, all four end up joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in their own time and their own way.
I couldn’t put the book down. I literally felt like a cloud that had engulfed me my whole life was being wiped away from my eyes, and I could see clearly. All of the truths that I had been looking for in a church were on this list, plus more. Everything they said made sense to me, as if I had always known it. I don’t think I even really ever talked to my female roommates that weekend, as I was too busy reading in any spare moment that I had that weekend.
So after I was done, I politely returned the book. My friend didn’t say anything to me about it, other than to ask if I had liked it. I said that I had. And after a few days, I got up the courage to ask him more about it. We talked, and he told me a little about the church. He asked if I wanted to meet with the missionaries, and after a few days I said yes.
I had already decided before I even met with them that I wanted to join the church. In each discussion they would reveal to me what they thought was a big new concept – and each time, I would say “well, yes.” I don’t know how I knew it, but it was like something I had always known. And it all made perfect sense. They had me committed to baptism by the second or third discussion, and within a month I was baptized. My friend performed the baptism, and his dad confirmed me two weeks later.
Now when I look back on that time, I am truly amazed. I can see little places in my life where the Lord had been quietly preparing me and my life has been filled with richer blessings than ever would have been possible.
Crap: A tamer version of what I said a couple weeks ago when Mylie deleted the list of ideas from my iPhone that I had been keeping for my Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Thus causing the delay in posting more entries.
Cysts: I have cysts on my ovaries. It is part of a syndrome I have called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (yes, creative name, I know). It can lead to a whole host of issues, but has been relatively tame in my case. See also: PCOS.
