New Blog

Hey guys,

Now that I'm all mature and grown-up and going to college...
(Yeah right. I watched Pocahontas yesterday)
...I'm making a new blog. New me, new blog. Is that how it goes?
Anyways, here it is:
www.confessionsofcarlisa.org
Enjoy!

And Counting;

So, right now, I feel pretty happy. Lately, I feel as if blessings from the Lord are basically being rained upon me, and I am so grateful for it.

• First of all, THERE IS ONLY 17 MORE DAYS LEFT UNTIL I FLY TO SPAIN. OH MY GOODNESS. I HAVE NO WORDS TO EXPLAIN HOW EXCITED I AM. Okay, that's not true. I definitley do have words for it. I am so amazingly, shockingly, wonderfully, unable-to-even-think-of-more-adjectives-ly excited for this trip. It'll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The crazy part that truly boggles my mind is that I signed up for this trip in October...of 2011. That was SO long ago. That is...hold on a second... 511 days or 1 year, 4 months, and 22 days or 73 weeks, or 12,264 hours, or 735,840 minutes, or even (this is getting serious) 44,150,400 seconds. (Wow, that date calculator was thorough). 44 MILLION SECONDS SINCE I SIGNED UP. Boggles my mind.
• Second of all, I've been worried that I wouldn't have enough money for this trip. Between my parents and I, we've paid off the actual trip, but for whatever reason, I didn't give much thought into the money that I need while on the trip. And then, when I did, I got nervous. How am I going to pay for this? To enjoy myself when I'm always worried about how many euros (so fun to say that) I have? This thoughts raced through my head. But, no need to fear, blessings are here. For real, though. This week alone, four DIFFERENT families in my ward asked me to babysit for them. Coincidence? I think definitely not. My boss asked me to work everyday last week, which, not gonna lie, was kinda stressful, but it was worth it. I worked an extra day today, also. Oh, did I mention I got a raise as well. Only 2%, but that still means I am no longer a minimum wage girl. Moving up in the world. Oh, yeah! *Imagine Vector from Despicable Me*
• Third, I love my job. Seriously those kids make me so happy. Today, one of my little girls, who I LOVE, was talking to me. I would post this hilarously cute picture of her, but I'm not allowed to. Anyways, she was talking about boyfriends and asked if I had one. When I said no, she looked aghast. "Why? You're beautiful!" It basically made my entire week. She's adorable and kids are adorable and I can't wait to have a beautiful little family of my own...I mean, I can wait. I'm only seventeen, for goodness sakes.

That's it for right now, but... OH YEAH

• They just called a two hour delay like a half-hour ago. Those sure make me happy. Especially when we get it called the day before and not fifteen minutes after I wake up for seminary. Woop woop. Holla.

So, that's it for right now, but I will talk to you guys later.

P.S. I have a joke for you. Don't cheat. It's basically my joke for the week. I've been telling everyone. It's just to clever...Anyways:

Q: Why can't you hear the pterodactyl go to the bathroom?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Got it?
A: The "p" is silent.

:D

Talk, talk, talk.

So, I have a kind of funny story. Well, I don't know if you'd say funny - definitely one of those stories that only seems to happen to me - but here goes:
My friend Emily and I (and our sisters) usually watch the kids of choir members after church each Sunday. So we were sitting there, enjoying the antics of crazy kids - running, dancing, leaking pee on my dress (another story for another day...) , when one of the brethren from the ward walks in. I was prepared for him to come to me, but he walks past and stands in front of Emily: "Hey, Emily, next Sunday, would you be willing to give a talk on..." and that's when I zoned out. She agreed whole-heartedly, until her sister pipes in, "We won't be here. We're going to Florida."
At this moment, I knew what was going to happen. Maybe it was intuition, maybe even that still small voice, but it happened. I see him - as if in slow motion - turn towards me, tilting his head, and smiling. He didn't have to say a word. So, I agreed, of course. I actually enjoy giving talks, which is kind of weird, if you know me, cause I really dislike public speaking. But speaking in church seems so much easier, and I know that I can attribute that directly to the Holy Ghost, and the fact that absolutely NO ONE would judge me, and even if it was awful, I'll get about 102 compliments on it by the end of the three-hour block.
So, here I am. Actually studying for this talk. I think this is the fourth or fifth one I've ever given in sacrament meeting, which isn't a lot, now that I think about it. But I have definitely been known to be that member that is up late Saturday night just starting it. I wanted this time to be different. So, I've been studying, and it's been awesome - seriously. There are so many general conference talks out there, just a click of a button away. I don't know why I haven't been using those resources more often, but I definitely plan to.
So, anyways, later that night, I realized I didn't even know what I was speaking on, having zoned out when I thought it wasn't going to be me. So, I found out and this Sunday, Feb 17, I am speaking on How Living our Standards Helps Missionary Work.
So, I am going to keep you updated on that, but if anyone has any ideas or experiences or any awesome talks that could help me, that'd be fantastic. Really. A huge help. Huge. Yeah. Bye!

Twenty-Thirteen

I am so, so excited for this year. I feel like it's in this year that everything changes.

Three months from now, I'll be flying to Spain. How amazing is that? I am beyond excited.

In almost exactly five months, I will graduate high school. I cannot even fathom that fact. I remember first hearing that I was in the class of 2013 while in middle school. It seemed so far away then, and now it's HERE. In the flesh. High school is almost over. Forever. How can that be? How is it possible when I was just a little freshman, having just moved into town? Wasn't that just a few months ago?...I guess not.

So much has changed since then. I feel like a completely different person than I was those four long years ago. Yet, I feel like this year will help shape me into a brand new person as well.

A month later, I'll be starting college at BYU-Provo. I haven't officially been accepted, but that's alright.

This year holds so much in store for me and I hope to love every minute of it.


So, the reason I opened this blog post and started writing again is to share my New Year Resolutions. I have never officially done a list before, but I figure it'd probably be good for me. So, here you go:

• Love Myself
• I have always had a hard time loving who I am and not criticizing who I am. I want this year to be different. I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father who loves me with everything He has. He made me after His own image. How then can I criticize how I look, my personality, without criticizing Him? I can't. So I need to change that.
• Love Others
• I think something that is ingrained into our society and into human nature is to judge others. The first time we see someone, we automatically make a judgement based on how they look, how they speak. I think I heard something somewhere that it only takes 11 seconds after seeing someone to make a judgement about them. I am guilty of this, as I'm sure most human beings are. I don't want to be guilty of this. Every single person is a son or daughter of God, and like I said earlier, criticizing any one of them, or judging any one of them, is criticizing and judging God.
• Do Something Creative Everyday
• I love being creative. It just brings out a good side in me and I love it and, as of now, I don't do it often enough. Whether it's writing or crafting, I want to do it everyday. This also includes blogging at least once a week.
• Work Out Everyday if Possible
• I've been trying to go to the Y everyday if I can (and if I can't, there's definitely some Just Dance action at the Cramer home) for a little while now, and it makes me feel a lot better. Now it's something I almost have to do and I want to keep that going.
• Read 100 or more books
• I love, love, love reading. I have never kept track of how many books I've read in a year before so this is kinda a shot in the darkness as to how much I can read. But I can do it. I'm excited to do it :)
• Project Life 365
• My sister told me about this. It's a project where I take a picture everyday, with a one-word prompt. I feel like I just might not follow those, though, and just take one of what's going on in my life at that time. Throughout the year, I want to make an album with these pictures, too. This will be such an amazing year and I will be experiencing so many amazing things that I think it's a good idea to document everyday. I'll try posting them on here as I go.
• Scripture-study
• I want to develop my relationship with my Heavenly Father further, and so I want to make a resolution to study scriptures everyday. And not necessarily strictly from the four books of scriptures. Either that or talks from general authorities or Preach My Gospel. This will probably be the hardest one for me to follow. But I'm gonna go for it.
• Mormon 5:23
• I found a scripture that I want to kind of make my 2013 Life Motto. Mormon 5:23. The first phrase is what struck me: "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?" If I live each day, knowing that God is there to guide me, and to trust in him with all my heart, to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, I fill like my life will be so much more fulfilling. This is my most important resolution, I think, because with it, everything else will fall into place.