The New Digs

Well hi! 

As you might have guessed from previous posts, I have been in the process of moving. After seven years of living with roommates (all of them wonderful and interesting), I've started to really itch for my own space. So about 7 months ago, I started looking. I wasn't quite up for taking on a house, so yeah, I'm still renting an apartment, but buying my own house no longer seems quite so daunting now that I've done the getting-my-own-apartment thing. Maybe in a few years. ;)

Anyway, I moved on the 17th of February and I'm now officially all unpacked. It was a pretty quick process overall. The apartment was livable on the first night (thanks to my diligent friends), and I hate boxes sitting out, so I got rid of them as quickly as I could. 

And here's my new pad:

This is the front room. The window lets in SO much light and I LOVE IT, but I had to close it for the pictures. I have a third-floor private balcony, which will be put to excellent use when the first thunderstorms roll in. :)

Yeah, this front room is a little tiny. If I didn't have vaulted ceilings, it would be claustrophobically tiny, but all the natural light and space above keeps the room from feeling oppressively small. Little Brother had my entertainment center set up in the first 20 minutes I was in the house (the couches hadn't even arrived yet).

Remember that I mentioned I have vaulted ceilings? There's also a loft and a ledge (if you're brave enough to hop over the half-wall up top) above. So this is looking down from that. I solemnly swear that I will be up to no mischief, and I won't ever fall (the ledge doesn't have a railing, which is the one major "????" factor of the apartment design. But I'm relatively graceful and sure-footed, so I'm not too fussed).

But YOU GUYS if you ever come visit had better be careful. I keep going all Momma Bear on people who climb out up here.

On the flip side, anyone who comes into my apartment is a prime target for a nerf gun attack from above, so take that under advisement. (Note to self: acquire nerf guns...)

Oh yeah, and those couches are quite comfortable. :D

These are shots of the ledge. See? No railing. It is wider than it looks, and that wheely chair is a miserable excuse for a wheely chair. The wheels don't work, so I won't ever be pushing back from my desk and taking a shortcut to my front room.


I also like that it's harder to access, because this is my work zone. If and when I work from home, I'm not going to be easily distracted by dishes or snacks or my books, because it actually takes effort to get out there and to get back to the rest of the house.

So Lynnae will be able to focus.

Anyway, moving on with the tour.

Oh hello loft! And see what I mean about the effort? I have to hop over that wall if I want to get to and from the ledge. Little Brother gets to sleep in the loft when he comes to visit now, and the books that didn't fit in the front room have overflow space up here. All it needs now is a quashy armchair or something. I'll work on that.

And yes, I have little toy figurines set up by the lamp. Ben and Hyrum would be proud. 

Once you take a little jaunt down the stairs, we come back to the main living spaces. I have a darling dining room and a cute kitchen. (Ha! Alliteration)

The bedroom and bathroom are to the left of the stairs. Kitchen is to the right of the dining table.

LOOK AT ALL THE COUNTER SPACE!!

And then, at the very end, the bedroom:

I love this room. :) I also have the biggest walk-in closet. I'm so spoiled, and I love it.

So yeah, this is my place. It's perfect for me, and despite some of the oddities, the apartment is so unique that I can't get irritated by the little quirks. I'll probably never have a place that has such an unusual design again, so I'm enjoying it while I'm here. 

I'm also looking forward to many adventures and good memories made here. I've got a year to do it, and that's plenty of time to fill it with great memories. :)

The Grand Chop

Yes, I'm aware that this post is going to be old news for the people who see me regularly, but I still wanted to share it. I cut my hair!

After three years of growing it out (and pouring a lot of love and attention into keeping it healthy that whole time), cutting it off was kind of a big deal for me. In fact, I had a hard time committing to doing it (much to my hair stylist's chagrin). It was really beautiful long, but I like the shorter cut more because it suits me a little bit better.

Though, to my surprise, some of my guyfriends actually openly wept when I chopped it off. Guys really do like longer hair. Go figure.

Before

However, I am also my mother's daughter. She's a cosmetologist. She's always done whatever she wanted with her hair, regardless of what my dad's preferences are (though she's been nice enough to never do something that he hates, and he doesn't try to force his preferences on her--he loves her the way she is). I'm exactly the same way. My hair is mine. I'll do what I want with it. That being said, I'm attached (haha, stupid pun) to it, and I like it long enough to run my fingers through, so if my man really hates pixie cuts on girls, he'll probably never have to worry about it. If, by some weird happenstance, he really likes pixie cuts on girls, well, he might just have to live without that.

After!

Whatever, I've rambled long enough.

Pretend that this is seven months ago and you haven't seen me without long hair in three years. :)

I'm growing it out a little more and plan on keeping it around shoulder length for a while. That's probably my favorite length overall.

By the way, I didn't realize how much I changed my hair until I started the whole online dating thing. I put a range of pictures up and didn't really think about it, but then I started getting a bunch of questions along the lines of, "So what does your hair actually look like right now?" Looking back through them, I realized that it's been long, short, light, dark, black, blonde, even a little red (depending on the lighting).

The winners are always the ones who like it all ways. ;)

I'm totally okay with change

You know what I actually really like?

Moving.

I love moving.

I like digging through my stuff, throwing things out, reliving memories as I open up old boxes to see if I still need anything in them, and reorganizing my life into boxes and rooms.

I also love unpacking and spreading out into a new home, watching empty rooms fill up with all the things that matter to me. I've even redecorated my room a couple of times in the last year, even though I haven't moved, just because I enjoy the refresh.

Maybe it's a really stereotypically womanly thing, but I really do love making my house a home. I love the idea of decorating, cooking things that smell good, and having plushy couches that beg people to curl up on them with a good book. And the older I get, the stronger that desire gets.

So yeah, as I may have mentioned, I'm moving. Roommate and I have been simmering over this decision for a couple of months now, and while we really do love living together, we've both been itching for a change. She's looking forward to living with someone new, and I've been dying to get into my own home. For me, it's time. I've had roommates long enough, and I'm ready to have a space that is 100% my own.

Hello, home office and guest bedroom. Little Brother is so excited to have a real bed to sleep in when he comes up to visit for the weekend.

Will it be tough, living alone? Maybe a little bit. I'll be more likely to get lonely, but I've gotten really good at dealing with that in the last couple of years, and I know that I won't hermit up and get depressed. In fact, it might actually be better for me because I'll have to reach out of my comfort zone and invite people over (or go out with them) in order to have company. In some ways, having my roommate around becomes a little bit of a crutch, because I get enough social interaction from her that I don't reach out to other people who might be in greater need of a friend than she is.

I also realize that I'm running the risk of settling into habits and getting used to doing things exactly the way I want them that might present an interesting challenge when I do eventually get married. But that's been a risk for years. My poor husband is going to have to spend the first year or so of our marriage trying to remind me to let him open the dang jars and reach the hard-to-reach stuff on the top shelf anyway. Poor man. :)

But remember? I like change. So maybe that won't be so difficult after all. ;)

By the way, do you know what I really dislike?

Being all ready to jump into action and having to sit around waiting. Yep. My apartment isn't available yet. So I have all this pent-up energy and motivation to get the ball rolling and I can't let it run free yet. So if I seem cranky or like I'm stewing, it's probably because of that.

Aside from that, life is wonderful. And I genuinely mean that. Yes, there are little annoyances and things that throw my mood off for a few hours (or a day, sometimes), but I'm still incredibly blessed, and I never entirely forget that.

Happy 2015! plus, Life Update!

Wow. I've been worse at blogging this year than ever before. Conversely, I've been better at journaling in an actual journal. You know, the kind that only you and your kids ever see. I rocked at that this year. It seems blogging and journaling have an inverse relationship for me. So, I need to do my annual year-in-review post and then hopefully fill you in on the rest of my life. So off we go!

ZERO, the number of roommates I'll have this coming year, since I finally got my very own apartment. I signed for it over Christmas! It's also the number of vacuums I have for said new apartment, though I have pretty much everything else I need. ;)

ONE queen bed, plus a bedroom set, that I bought for myself this year. Goodbye, cramped little twin bed! I'm sleeping in a bedroom that looks like it belongs to an adult, and I'm a little bit a lot happy about that. Also, bright side, I will have ONE guest bed for friends and family to sleep in when they come to visit me now!

TWO siblings on missions: Jess in Germany and Ben in Guatemala. We talked to both of them over Christmas, and I am so unbelievably proud of their faith and dedication in serving the Lord. It's so cool to have them both out at the same time. 

THREE months ago, I started volunteering at the Bountiful temple as an ordinance worker on Saturday evenings. It eats into my social life quite a bit, but I haven't once regretted it. The blessings I've received since I started have far outweighed any social inconvenience. I also have the opportunity to dust off my foreign language skills and learn the ordinances in Spanish to help with the Spanish session we have every Saturday. That's one of my New Year's resolutions. :)

FOUR days in Washington, DC for a business trip this last October. First, I have a job that sends me on business trips. How cool is that? Second, I haven't been to DC since I was five (and I vividly remember the giant fake penny that I got there that fell down a drainage grate after I got home--I stared mournfully through that grate for a few weeks after that, watching the mud pile up on that glint of copper at the bottom... wow, that is is a really vivid memory from 20 years ago...). Third, I got to meet my hilarious and wonderful team of editors (who are scattered all over the country) for the first time, and it felt like I'd known them for years. 

FIVE times five equals 25, which is how old I turned this last year, and it has been wonderful. From an excellent birthday surprise by Roommate to the insurance cuts that you get if you have a perfect driving record to finally figuring out a few more things about life and love, 25 has been an excellent year for me. It's probably been my favorite age so far. I almost don't want to turn 26, not because I don't want to get old, but because I'm not done being 25 yet.   

SIX Jacksons with full-fledged temple recommends (and Baby Brother super excited to do the same when he's older). When I was younger, I watched a lot of my cousins struggle and fall away from the Church, and I was always a little afraid that one of my siblings would, too. It's still a mild concern (enough that it keeps us lovingly bolstering each other's testimonies when times get hard), but my parents' incredible examples of faith and devotion to the Lord above everything else have clearly impacted me and my siblings and inspired us to set the same patterns for ourselves, including temple service. I find a lot of comfort in knowing that my brothers and sister can and will face difficulties with optimism and hope, no matter what comes their way. 

SEVEN months ago, I finally, finally bought my first car! Her name is Phoebe, she's three years old, and I have no regrets about the amount of time I spent saving for her, because I was able to afford an almost-new, very nice car. It also frees me up to do a lot of things I couldn't do before.

EIGHT hours (give or take a little) of incredibly uplifting conversations with a man who completely changed my mind about pretty much all of my dating fears. No, he's not still in my life, but he treated me better than I've been treated by a date in years, and he restored my excitement about dating in general. Go him! He was also proof that even a relatively tiny amount of time and effort can make a lasting impact on someone else. Little things can yield big results, even if you're not around to see them later. He won't ever know what he did, but I know, and my future family will be blessed by it. (Cheesy, I know, but it's true.)

NINE hours and forty minutes: the length of the drive Brian and I took to Sacramento for Thanksgiving, which marked Phoebe's first road trip (she did wonderfully well), AND the first time in five years that I've been able to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with my immediate family, since my parents and baby brother flew to meet us in Sacramento to spend the holiday with our Granddad, who lives in El Dorado.

TEN months at an incredible job. I know! TEN MONTHS! It's flown by so fast. I still love it as much as I did when I started, and I'm still content with the idea of working here for the rest of my life. That is a blessing I'm constantly thankful for. I love loving what I do for work. :)

Lesson Learned - This year has been a year of dreams come true. Yes, I've still had challenges and struggles (that's normal), but looking back over this year, I am overwhelmed by how many things fell into place this year. Last year, I learned that my happiness starts with me, and now, after another year of putting that into practice, I am amazed by how good this year has been! Dreams DO come true. They absolutely do. Sometimes, we have to work through a lot of pain and suffering before they do, but if it matters to us, it matters to God, and He'll help us make it happen.

And the other thing I've learned this is year is that my dreams (and yours) are worth the wait. Patience pays off. If it takes longer than you expect, then you'll appreciate it more when you do get it. My incredible job means a lot more to me because I worked through stressful, tenuous employment for two years beforehand. I appreciate my car more because I worked so hard for it (and even gave up the chance to buy a few times before I finally did). Don't ever give up on your dreams; the reality is so much better than your imagination could ever make it. 2014 was a fantastic year. 2015 will be incredible too, even if hard things happen.  It always gets better. ^_^

Dream a Little Bigger, Darling

Okay, so, as promised, it's time to get back to the normal stuff. :)

The most important thing: I HAVE A JOB!

A real, honest-to-goodness job. Shortly after my February post, I interviewed with a company that I'd been talking to for about a month and a half, and she pretty much offered me the job on the spot (though not technically, since that's not how it works). I knew about it when I wrote, back in February, but I didn't want to jinx it, so I didn't say anything.

Anyways, about this job.

The company is called KPMG. They provide audit, tax, and advisory services for a significant number of the FORTUNE 500 companies (and I believe they are one themselves). They're one of the Big Four such companies in the country. I'm one of only seven editors in the whole company (the U.S. branch, anyway). We handle almost all of the client-facing proposals, emails, presentations, etc. that the company produces. It means I'm crazy busy pretty much all the time. (I even have homework about half the nights of the week, because I don't have time during the day to edit everything by the deadlines.) Working for a financial services company might seem boring to a lot of editors, but it's pretty much where most editors end up. And you know what? It's not all that boring. Most of it is business writing (which occasionally makes me want to smack my face into a wall because it breaks half the rules of concise writing that were pounded into me all through college), and business writing is much less dry than some of the other stuff I've edited over the years. Every document is its own little treasure trove of grammatical mistakes that I have to dig up and correct. It doesn't get tedious because each one is also written by a different author, so there are distinct voices and syntactical quirks to each piece.

I probably can't convince most of you that any of this sounds like fun, but that doesn't matter. I love it.

I had my doubts about editing for a little while. After two straight years of proofreading (which is pretty grueling, to be honest), I was second-guessing my choice to be an editor for the rest of my life. I wasn't sure I was cut out for it. I also wasn't sure that I would get the kind of job that would make me happy. Editing jobs are few and far between out here in Utah. My original plan when my job with the Church ended was to find something well-paying for a year or two and then pick up and head out to New York City, where all the publishing jobs are. I figured that's when my career would start. If I still wanted it to start.

I'm glad that the Lord has bigger plans for me than I did for myself. I was dreaming small, honestly. And this job was definitely His doing. A friend recommended me for an admin assistant position in the Salt Lake KPMG office, so I applied, because I was applying for everything. One interview in, the recruiter was like, "Wait, you like editing?"

"Yes."

"We have a position posted for an editor in L.A. Let me send them your resume."

I didn't really want to move, but I figured it couldn't hurt to explore it a little, so I let him. Turns out that they liked my resume so much that they decided to open the same editing position in Salt Lake so that I wouldn't have to move (my work is not region-specific, so I could literally move anywhere in the country and still do the same job).

I found out after I was hired that this whole situation was pretty much love at first sight for both me and the editing manager. She thought I was perfect and spent the better part of a month trying to find something wrong with me. When that failed, she kept trying to figure out how to get rid of all the other applicants, because she didn't want any of them. On my side, from the first time I talked to her, I knew that I wanted this job. It sounded right up my alley as far as my background went, and I knew that the position would be well within my abilities and that it would push me to be better, too. It also offered the possibility to work from home, to move wherever I wanted, and permanence. Plus, the editors on the team tended to retire. That told me that they didn't get dissatisfied and quit. They stuck it out until they weren't working anymore. I wanted this job so badly. I've wanted it since about the second week in January, but I was terrified that I wouldn't get it, so I was very close-lipped about it.

Turns out, I didn't need to worry. This is exactly where I was supposed to be, and things just worked out. Right down to the fact that I kept coming in second place for all of my other interviews. I had so many interviews, and they all went really, really well. But almost every time, I found myself thinking, "Please don't offer me the job, please, please don't. KPMG hasn't called me back, yet." Since I was collecting unemployment insurance, turning down job after job would have caused me to lose my income, which I couldn't afford. But despite their obvious interest, none of those other jobs extended offers to me. (Well, one company extended me a frankly insulting offer to write out descriptions of bedpans for their website for $12 an hour, even though they knew I'd been making twice that before. I turned them down, obviously.)

So, after two months of unemployment, I landed my dream job. Seriously. If I had stuck to my original plan and gone out to New York, this is probably the kind of thing I would be looking for, because everyone wants the book-publishing jobs, but the positions like this are more stable and pay a little better.

So I got everything I never even knew I wanted from a job about two years earlier than I'd planned. And I can stay with this job for the rest of my life if I want to. No expiration date built in. If, on some crazy chance, I do want to leave it, it's an incredible thing to put on a resume, and I'll have a huge boost finding my next one, though, frankly, I don't ever plan on leaving. I want to build my career here.

So yeah. I'm doing what I love (and rediscovering just how much I do love it in the process), and I'm doing it in an environment that offers me the kind of stability that I've been craving ever since I graduated from college. I'm pretty happy with how my life has gone so far. It really does get better with time. :)

Of Nails and Nagging

I got my first professional manicure.

Yep, I opened with that.

Cassie needed a girl's night, and we decided to do a proper one (read: manis and chick-flicks instead of burgers and superhero movies) for once.

My nails look superb (all natural, baby... I just got them shellacked), and I'm enjoying it, but I won't be doing it often, considering it cost the same as filling up a car with gas.

No thank you.

I'll just use my $4 bottle of magnetic nail polish to do my nails most of the time.

That's my happiest thing to report at the moment.

In other news, I got told how to job hunt by a Utah government employee who believed that 24 was far too young to have any idea how to put together a resume and conduct a proper interview. I didn't appreciate it. Maybe I should be more humble, but I didn't like being talked down to. Just because I'm unemployed doesn't mean I'm unemployable. Tell that to the 12 jobs who told me I was their second choice for their positions.

Ha.

Now to find the one that has me as their first choice...

In the meantime, no more gas-tank-priced manicures. As pretty as they are.

2013, The Lynnae Perspective

So... I haven't written in two months. Most of you might have given up on me. But I have some free time on my hands (more deets later), so you might actually get more updates now.

Alright! Now that my almost-every-post apology is out of the way, on to the fun stuff! I sucked at it last year, but I have this thing where I try to give a brief, by-the-numbers recap of my previous year, just to summarize things and help me set my own stage for a new year (I did rock it in 2011 and 2012). So here is 2013 In Review.

ZERO boyfriends this year. This is a data point that has both blessed my life immensely and made it incredibly difficult. It's no secret that being single can be tough, no matter how good you get at it. Deep down, we crave companionship and support, and I am no exception. That means that certain aspects of this last year have been exceptionally painful, and I've struggled. But at the same time, I have learned how to find peace, happiness, and fulfillment on my own, with very little help from the usual sources, which is an incredible gift. I wouldn't change it for anything.

ONE amazing roommate for one year (plus a few months!). Aisley and I have had an adventure when it comes to figuring out how to live together (in some ways, living with just one person is harder than living with five other people, because you can't just ignore the roommates who are bothering you: if you're not getting along, there's no one else to mediate or diffuse the situation, and everything you do affects the other roommate). But we're figuring it out and learning a ton about ourselves and each other in the process. And I've gained a lifetime friend out of it. 

TWO years working on the 2013 Edition of the Scriptures, which finally ended in December. That project has made a huge difference in my life. I did that instead of full-time missionary service, and it's the best thing I've ever done with my life. There were ups and downs (a few of them chronicled here), but I wouldn't change any of it for anything in the world. As a result, leaving that job hurt. I miss it. I loved it. It has become a part of me that I'll always carry around, and I can only hope that I find something else as rewarding as that was.

THREE of us Jackson siblings living in Utah now. Jess is in Provo, living and working, and Brian is back from his mission, studying at BYU. I love having them close by. Brian takes such good care of me, and I can't possibly repay him for any of it.

FOUR times that my roommate has pranked the entire apartment out of revenge because I left her alone and went on vacation for too long (read: four days is too long in her opinion). Don't ever wonder why I love living with her. I'm never ever bored.

FIVE dagger or sword objects my roommate and I have on display in our house because both of us are happily nerdy and we take time often to indulge it. 

SIX thousand words written on a story that I started working on in November. That's a pittance compared to the typical word count of a novel, but it marks the first time that I've pursued a story idea into actual writing stage since high school. I may have decided to pursue editing instead of writing as my career, but I still have that starry-eyed 13-year-old girl dreaming of being an author hiding underneath, and she's getting to stretch her wings a little bit for the first time in years.

SEVEN members of my family, all back together in April, July, and over Christmas. I guess that's less of a huge deal for our family than it is for others, because none of us are married, so we don't really have anywhere else to spend holidays and vacation time, but it always matters to me. And I never know how much longer it will last, so I treasure it every single time.

EIGHT months until the two-year-anniversary of my going through the temple. Since it happened in 2012 and I didn't do one of these at the beginning of 2013, I have to fudge a little bit to make it work, but my endowment needs to be on this list. It has profoundly affected every other aspect of my life, and I could happily keep it on these lists for the rest of my life. Going through the temple has been one of the biggest, most personally sacred experiences of my life. It's something I'm grateful for every single day.

NINE petals on the fake flower bouquet I still have sitting in my room from my best friend's wedding, which happened in February 2013. She's the first one of our Terrific Trio from my college days to get married, and being her maid of honor was a major highlight of this last year.

TEN years ago, I met my best friend. She has been the one of the most important people in my life ever since then. Ten years is an impressive feat for both of us, since we both grew up moving around every few years, and both of us have made and lost track of many many friends over the years. There is so much solidarity that comes from having someone I can count on no matter what. Thanks, Q, for being there for me as much as my for-real siblings are.

Lesson Learned - The most important thing this year has taught me is that the best, most lasting happiness has to start with me. My friends, my family, and my romantic relationships all can contribute, but it's my choice that matters the most.

It's been a tough year, but I've discovered that the tough years usually yield the richest blessings and longest-lasting lessons. Whether this coming year contains the same kind of struggles as last year, or new ones stemming from things that completely alter my life, the lessons will all be worth it.

Last year and all the years before it have helped me learn what I'm capable of, and the best part is that my capacity grows every year. I face tougher challenges, but I also experience greater blessings each year. It truly is only uphill from here. It always will be uphill.

I'm ready for a wonderful year. Hello, 2014.

Curse You, Blog

Confession: I reread my own writing. Often. Possibly out of a combination of reminiscence, evaluation, and vanity.

And I did it tonight.

See the timestamp?

Crap.

Crapcrapcrap.

Normally, 12:15am? Not such a big deal. Except that graduation from college seemed to have instantaneously turned me into a little old lady who cannot function on less than 7 hours of sleep. My days of running full-tilt on 3 hours of sleep? Long gone.

I was going back through some very old posts on my blog and suddenly noticed the time. Poop.

Incidentally, when I turn my alarm on on my phone, it tells me how many hours and minutes I have until the alarm goes off. That "6 hours and 5 minutes" note is mocking me right now.

And of course, I had to blog about it. Because going straight to bed would be way too sensible for my track record tonight.

Yep. It's awesome. (Not.)

Peace out. I'm going to bed for reals this time.

Oh, and I wasted my landmark 300th post on this entry. Thought you should know. No epic landmark-occasion posts for you. You'll just have to wait for 400. :P

Love to See the Temple

My interviews are scheduled, my plane ticket is purchased, and I'll be in Texas to share one of the biggest moments of my life with my parents. 

This is where I'll be on August 11th, at 11:00 am. So, so, so, so happy. :)

San Antonio Texas Temple photo courtesy of the Church's temple site. Obviously it won't be night when I go through, but this is my favorite picture of it. :)

Technology Leap

Smrt Gizmos.

I has one. ^_^

Dad says that I'm officially ahead of him, technology-wise, which is probably one of the most impressive achievements I've achieved this year (yes, I know that achieving an achievement is redundant, but I'm too lazy to change the wording). I told him I'd let him play with it when I visit home again, but since he warned me that he might not give it back, I'm starting to think I shouldn't have made that offer.

But! In one fell swoop, this nifty not-so-little tablet solves my webcam problem, my I-have-a-dumb-phone problem, and my I-work-in-publishing-and-need-an-eReader problem. A worthwhile investment? Oh yes. I think so.

2011 By the Numbers

Welcome back! This is my obligatory Year in Review post, to help herald in 2012. Consider it my belated family-of-one Christmas letter. :)

ZERO set-in-stone plans for my future, and zero job offers, but I'm hopeful and remarkably content with things anyway.

ONE college degree. <--- Those three simple words carry so much emotion, stress, and achievement behind them. I did it. It's taken me my whole life, but I did it.

TWO unexpected answers to prayers that I never actually prayed---the first, I loved my capstone literary class, which was something I expected to just have to suffer through. Surprisingly, the Lord sort of tricked me into signing up for a class that would become the best one I've ever taken (I seriously thought I'd signed up for a different section than the one I got). The second, I found a best friend in Bountiful, which was a prayer I hoped for, but never actually had the courage to say aloud. After all, you can only have so many best friends, right? I figured I was full-up on my quota of people who love me unconditionally. Turns out I was wrong.

THREE Boatright sisters who seem to have had a goal this year to prove to me that I have so much more family than genetics would indicate. Qait is a given, of course, but Maddie, Abby, and Rae have all shown the same kind of sisterly love and attachment. It may sound silly, but I always feel surprised and touched to find out that people love me as much as I love them.

FOUR months spent at the Ensign, which has been the most rewarding experience of my life.

FIVE years since I graduated from high school. Exactly. I finished high school in December of 2006. I feel only a little nostalgic about this. This year also marked the first time I spent Thanksgiving with my family in five years. I felt much more nostalgic about this.

SIX months are up: My student loan payments start now. I only mention this because it connects to another major achievement this year: I'm financially stable. Well and truly financially stable. I've been providing for myself for the last 5 years, but there's a difference between paying for all your own stuff and knowing how to do it smartly. Thanks to some valuable lessons from my parents, and some trial-and-error on my part, I feel like I've figured out the latter---and it's come back to bless me as I face impending unemployment. 

SEVEN gorgeous decorative pillows that came with the bedding I bought for my new apartment in Bountiful. I moved out of Provo much sooner than I'd originally thought I would, but it seemed like the right thing to do, and I've been so blessed in my new life. Provo will always have a special spot in my heart (no matter how much people like to make fun of it), but it's good to move on.

EIGHT hours spent reading a whole book in one sitting. That's not my fastest time, but it marked the return of my time to read for pleasure back in May. Since then, I have luxuriated in all the time I have to read, and I've devoured so many books this year. It's probably my favorite part of being graduated. 

NINE months that Brian has been out on a mission. In that time, he has remained my best friend, and he continues to inspire me to be a better person, even though he's so far away.

TEN days on a houseboat on Lake Powell this summer, the best vacation that I ever had to be talked into. It reminded me again that my extended family is wonderful, and they're happy to be there for me when my immediate family is miles and miles away.

Lesson Learned - The biggest thing I've learned from this past year? It's that the Lord guides our every step if we let Him. And He knows a better trail through the woods than we do. I have had my prayers answered and my dreams fulfilled (or helped out, if they haven't been fulfilled yet) in ways I never would have thought, but looking back, it makes a lot more sense than my plan did. The people I've worked with at the Church Magazines all have amazing stories of how they ended up doing what they're doing. When it comes down to it, I think everyone does. When you look back and see how your life has led up to the point it's at, it can be pretty amazing. To me, it's proof that my steps have been guided.

I had no way of knowing back when I joked with my high school classmate about editors and authors (ironically, she wanted to be the editor and I wanted to be the author---both of us have switched, now) that the knowledge we gained compiling seemingly useless trivia would actually contribute to me finding out that I really wanted to be an editor. Nor could I have guessed that jobs I thought were random and not really directly in my career path have actually made my career possible.

It gives me hope that my current choices, as shot-in-the-dark-ish as they feel to me, will yield similar results. The Lord knows where He wants me. The lessons I've learned this last year have made it possible to handle the pressure I'm facing now, at the start of 2012.

I look forward to yet another year of amazing experiences.

The big 2-0-0

Hey, Blogger tells me that I've written 200 blog posts! Cool! Actually, this* post  is my 202nd post, but since my last few blog posts were a little more serious in tone, the celebration had to wait until this one.


*(holy crap, Macs are messing me up: I keep trying to hit the "command" key instead of the "ctrl" key to italicize and end up hitting the obnoxious and seemingly useless Windows key instead...)


So what was I doing 100 blog posts ago? Well, surprisingly, I was in much the same state that I'm in now: content, busy, looking forward to the future, and grateful for the past. I haven't been at that stage through all 100 blog posts in between, obviously, but overall, I've been remarkably happy. Life has been good to me. There have been times when I might have argued with that statement, but let's take a look at what has happened, shall we?

I graduated from BYU.
I had a beautiful interview with my stake president that has effectively eased any and all worry I feel about going through the temple. Since then, I've been peacefully content that the timing for that is already taken care of.
I got THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD at the Ensign, where I'm uplifted, inspired, and taught all kinds of spiritual and professional lessons every day.
I got a beautiful new "niece" whose picture on my phone makes me smile every time I see it and whose cute little baby coos and burbles in my arms is one of my favorite sounds in the world.
My brother has gone on a mission, and that has blessed me almost as much as it has blessed him.
I have found out that my friends (you know who you are) are the truest, most loyal, supportive, and faithful friends any girl could ever ask for.

Sure, I'm still not married, and I don't have a family yet, but dang it, I'm going to enjoy my chocolate bar and not worry about that golden ticket. I've already been promised it, so I'm not worried. In the meantime, I will eat the chocolate and love every bite.

Actually, on the note of President Uchtdorf's Golden Ticket analogy, my mom and I were discussing some of the additional symbolism of the story itself and realized that, in a sense, he was warning us not to be Veruca Salt. When you think about the amount of chocolate her father bought in order to find that golden ticket, she probably already had a lifetime's supply of chocolate, but she couldn't enjoy it because she was so obsessed with the golden ticket. There's nothing wrong with wanting the golden ticket, but make sure you enjoy the chocolate, too. :)

(And if you couldn't tell, I loved adored President Uchtdorf's talk. I actually got to read it a few days before the broadcast because we were proofreading at work, but I couldn't talk about it until afterward, and I'm so glad that everyone else now knows how it beautiful it is!)

PPS: Fun fact! This post is also my hundredth post of 2011. Cool.

2010 in Abbreviated Review

I'm mimicking Rae's post because I thought it was clever. Just so you know. :)

ZERO G.E. classes left to complete (!)

ONE sibling who received a mission call -- Puebla, Mexico, if you didn't remember

TWO new best friends, without whom I'd never have survived the last half of the year. Kristopher and Stephanie, I owe you the world.

THREE areas that I know without a doubt I made the right decision in: the breakup, the mission, and the job.

FOUR classes I passed last semester despite a lot of issues with motivation. That's all of them, by the way. :)

FIVE coworkers who made every day a lot more bearable whenever I thought life was falling apart. Laurel, Roger, Becca, Jessika, and Greg (with the very recent addition of Scott) are responsible for the successful retention of my sanity, and the consistent recognition and validation that kept me from hating myself, no matter how much I might have wanted to at times.

SIX months ago, I managed to heal a friendship that had been shattered, and that friend has become (again) one of my best study buddies and confidantes. Life would be a lot less enjoyable without him.

SEVEN members of our family who are temple-worthy and were able to do a baptism session together over the break. This is the first time ever (Hyrum just turned 12 in October) and probably the last time in a while that all seven of us can be in the same temple at the same time (with Brian leaving on his mission, me graduating and going who-knows-where, etc)

EIGHT months until I graduate and go through the temple, thus fulfilling two of the three major goals I've had since childhood. The other one being marriage, of course. But that one is in God's very capable hands, so I'm not worried about it.

NINE fiction books that I discovered and have added to my collection because I loved them so much. I wish that number were higher, but I've been too busy to do a lot of pleasure reading in the last three or four years, and I've found even fewer books that I love enough to buy.

TEN - the number of student employees selected to interview with the HRS auditors during their major review. This honor, and the deep-tissue edit of the 40-page Unit Review documentation, constitute one of my biggest accomplishments in 2010, most especially since it gave me access to some impressive references and it's a major mark on my resume when it comes to job-hunting this next year.

ONE YEAR AGO - For what it's worth, this time last year, I met Tevan, who changed my life. I can't review 2010 without including him, because he was part of it for 7 fantastic months. I wouldn't be the person I am without him, and he definitely was an answer to prayers (not just my own). He is engaged now, and getting married in three months, and I honestly couldn't be happier for him (and his fiancee -- she's getting a wonderful man). Life is full of people who touch our lives for a brief, blazing moment and too often fade away into the dusty pages of our pasts, but those blazing moments often help define who we are and who we become. Tevan did that for me. Like so many others, he has slipped into my past, but he left his mark, and I am grateful. He will go on to make the most important marks with his wife and family, and I wish all of them all the happiness in the world.

As for me, I have my work cut out for me, and this year is chock full of hope, promise, and change. I'm still working on nailing down all my resolutions for 2011, and I'll let you know when I do. Let's just say, I plan to accomplish a lot, and I hope to look back on this year with as much gratitude and satisfaction as I can on 2010.