the sun is shining

today is going to be a good day. 

why?

it's 11:30 and i'm already done with work.

it's warm outside.

i've already chatted with my pops today.

just finished an effortless five mile run.

my apartment is clean.

no school to worry about. [for four months]

i'm leaving with my best friends to florida. in one week.  

and, i'm engaged to this boy.

what are you loving about today?

i'm missin the fam today. maybe it's because i haven't seen them for 3 months. maybe it's because it's easter weekend. maybe it's because i don't talk to them as much as i should. or maybe it's just because they live 4000 miles away.

i miss being able to call my mom on my walk home from school. or whenever i want. 

i miss the daily text from my dad giving me a scripture to think about, asking me about my love life, or just telling me that he loves me.

i miss asking lis for her opinions/take on what i should do in certain situations. (she knows the right answer to everything) and well, she's the only big sister i have.

i miss when trae would call me to talk to me about byu basketball. or sometimes he would just call for no reason at all. just to check up. 

i miss morg's smile and crazy personality. she's one of the funniest girls i know.

i miss mal sitting on my lap or hanging on my arm, she likes to snuggle. and i miss that.

and i miss dave's laugh. it sounds exactly like all my other brothers laughs. even when nothing is funny just him laughing will most definitely get you laughing. 

i miss watching ave do her thing. walk around. boss around. and get me to do anything she wants by  just being plain cute. :)

i better stop this before the tears start flowing.

i know my family being so far away is a good thing too. they are learning and growing so much. i can't believe how much older morgan looks. or how much portuguese my mom can speak. i can't believe how easily and happily lis handles being so far away from her family and raising a 2 year old in another country. or how much good my dad does every single day.

 them being gone has forced me to do some learning and growing on my own. so maybe i talked to both of my parents multiple times everyday. (before they left) and possibly relied on my dad a little too much, for everything. i've had to learn how to be more independent. but as independent as i am i can't always handle everything by myself. and that's where brian comes in. :) every need i have, he fills. bless his heart.  He's who i depend on. and who i know, just like my parents were, he'll be with me. through everything.

 so i am in fact grateful for the change, grateful for the 4000 mile distance, and the [sometimes] lonely days.  it's allowed me to loosen my tight grip on something really good in order to grab hold on to something else really good. the next step in my life. heavenly father knows me too well. 

thank goodness for that.

starting the week off right.

sunday couldn't have come at a better time this week. (isn't that how it always is?) i love this day for so many reasons. just to name a few: 

i get to talk to my family. the ones in idaho, and the ones in brasil. i usually get quite a long chat with my mom on skype. (which is always much needed) today this included my adorable niece singing "someday my prince will come." made my whole day. 

the end of the week (when its the end of the semester) usually leaves me feeling pretty run down and very burnt out, but 3 hours of church always fixes that.

 no homework:) -not that i don't have any, i've just made it a goal not do DO any on sunday. best decision of my life, i would recommend it to everyone.

being with my roommates all day long. our school/work schedules are completely different-sometimes it feels like we don't see each other for days. sunday usually fixes that.

today i was thinking how awesome it is that we are encouraged to wear our {sunday best} i'm sure a lot of you, like me, get more done up for church than any other day. (heavens knows i don't get dolled up for school) i love being surrounded by everyone looking so cleaned up and nice. 

the guitar is somehow always involved on sunday.

my fiance looks smokin hot in a shirt and a tie.

brian and i go up to sandy quite a bit. and always get an amazing home cooked meal. :)

sunday popcorn. 

naps.  

visitors. family/ friends. it's the best.

sundays give me the energy/strength to take on the rest of the week.

today was one of those sundays that everything said at church was for me. one of those sundays that makes me want to be a better person, in every way. one of those sundays where everyones testimonies/lessons/comments were all related to each other. one of those sundays where you go home feeling better than ever. one of those sundays that where you know you're at the right place. one of those sundays that you know the gospel is the most important thing. one of those sundays that you know,without a doubt, it's all true.

also, brian and i have been attending a marriage/temple prep class. two of our bishopric members teach it, and it has been so good for us. today we talked about two talks that were given in general conference.

priesthood power-president monson 

the eternal blessings of marriage-elder scott

the talk by president monson was given in priesthood session. if you haven't read it, do it. it's one of my favorite talks from conference. somehow he talks about everything there is to talk about in a couple of pages. very applicable to everyone. i also loved elder scott's. pretty sure i'm ready to take this marriage thing on. :)

thank goodness for sundays.

one of those days

yesterday was a bad day. just one of those days when nothing really bad happens, just a lot of little things that accumulate and make it not very fun. so, that's how my day was. just a lot of little bad things. until about 3 o clock. then something really bad happened. which was the icing on the already bad cake. (and i hate cake)

so......a little bit grumpy, and really tired i get off work and decide i'm going to make myself feel better. my mom told me she'd buy me an easter dress, and i've known exactly what i want for some time-so i was going to treat myself to a brand new dress. i headed to the mall, in decent spirits, walked into the store, grabbed what i wanted, paid for it and was on my way out in less than three minutes. as i was walking out the door i checked my pockets and start to panic. oh no, where are my keys?? but i already knew, they were in my car. i was praying the whole way to the car "pleasse pleasssse be unlocked." but did i get that lucky? of course not. well....you think that's bad. guess who's cell phone was also in the locked car. gooood one macey.

also, i don't have a spare key to my car. never have, probably never will.

i stood outside of my car for probably 20 minutes trying to figure out what i'm supposed to do and trying not to cry. (please keep in mind, that i never cry) so, the only person's phone number i know by heart (besides my families) is brian's. but he was at work...and i wasn't sure what time he was going to get off. [probably not for a couple of hours] but since he was my only hope..i decided i'd go into jcpennys and call him.

i go to customer service, and they tell me their phones don't dial out, unless you go to the catalog desk. so i go upstairs to the catalog desk, and of course the lady that is working has to be the grouchiest lady in the world. she couldn't help me for about 15 minutes because she was busy chewing out her husband on the phone. (apparently he forgot to pay the cell phone bill.) after waiting there for about fifteen minutes she gets off the phone and i asked her if i can use the phone. thank goodness she said yes, and then put in like a ten digit code before i could dial out.

brian is pretty good at returning my texts/calls when he's at work. he works at the mtc so sometimes when i'm calling he can just step out of the classroom and take it. or if he's not able to do that he'll call me/text me back when he can. which usually never takes long. but i knew he wasn't going to answer the phone of a random number calling him. and i didn't think he wasn't going to be able to call me back-because that ten digit number the lady typed in was pretty complicated. so, i left him a message. which consisted of: my keys and phone are locked in my car, and i don't know what to do. call me back if you CAN.....if not i'll just try to call you in a couple of hours. (but of course i forgot to mention the fact that i was at jcpenny.)

not knowing what to do after that i sat down on one of the chairs and decided i'd call him again in 45 minutes. (i was too scared to ask the lady any sooner then that) plus she was back on the phone with her husband, yelling.

well, about five minutes later the phone started ringing.....and ringing and ringing. she couldn't answer it because she was "busy." i couldn't help but thinking..."that's probably brian." but there was nothing i could do about it...so it just kept ringing and ringing. then, about five minutes after THAT a spanish lady's voice came over the store intercom. "macey jones.....sadflasdkfjldkj" (i didn't understand anything except my name, because of her accent.) she repeated the same thing like three times, but i didn't know what to do! was i supposed to go somewhere downstairs? stay put? call brian back? ugh. instead, i just kept sitting.

the mean lady was finally off the phone and had a line of about ten customers. when the phone rang and she [finally] answered it. you could tell she was overwhelmed and super annoyed, but she looked at me and said "macey jones, you're wanted on the phone." it was brian. hooray.


after brian drove down to hang out with me, he called 5 different locksmiths and found the cheapest one, and then $50 bucks later...he told me how he got ahold of me. apparently he called the number i called from back and got: "welcome to jcpenny....choose which department you would like to speak to." of course he didn't know where i was in the store. so he just tried his best guess. first, the women's department. next, women's dresses. (that's where the spanish lady paged me) last, women's shoes. (and that's where the guy told him i probably called from the catalog desk and connected him there)

pretty sure if our positions would have been reversed i would have given up as soon as i dialed jcpenny because i wouldn't have known what else to do. and probably would have just waited for him to call me again. but not brian. he would spend 45 minutes trying to figure out where i am.....and rescue me from the mean lady. moral of the story: he is the best fiance.

thank goodness for this boy. 

[the hat is proof that it was just a bad day. bad hair and all]