If I Could Go Back...

I was cleaning out my 'random' documents file and found an old journal entry that I had written before I left Maryland, so I thought I would post it! This is how I felt before I came back to Utah!

"Wow! I cannot believe that in three days I'll be making the drive back to Utah. Surprisingly enough the feelings of going home are very,very bittersweet.

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to be back and to be with my family and get this wedding completely planned but there are a lot of things that I'm not excited about being back to, such as being back in the mixture of millions of members, construction, dealing with cut throat drivers, and everything being cookie cutter and nothing all to extraordinary. I will miss the diversity of living in Maryland, the humidity, the brick row homes, beautiful old stone churches on every corner, green trees, the diverse people, amazing thunderstorms, the fatty foods from Bubba's and Season's Pizza, and being in a centralized area to so many awesome places!

I feel like living out here that I have grown up a ton, I have been sheltered for so long in Utah that I didn't understand that such cultures as in Maryland could be so different from the one that I lived in Utah. In Utah, everyone seems to be a member of the church, out in Maryland you'd be lucky to find a member randomly in a store. In Maryland, I strived to be able to feel the spirit and was able to recognize what things brought the spirit into my life; where back at home it was hard to differentiate because the spirit was always felt. I am excited to go to church out here and to socialize with individuals who have the same beliefs as I do because every day of the week being able to do that is a rare treat.

I will miss Maryland!"

Looking back on my experiences and photos, Maryland really is a beautiful state. When there are no mountains and just miles of plains, they produce some of the most beautiful sunsets. 

This was on top of the parking garage of where we lived, {we lived in the building pictured}. I will definetely miss the spectacular sunsets!

This picture was just taken a few minutes prior to the first picture. Beautiful!

This is a video of the sunset, I included this here only because we took video of the area near where we lived. The Catholic church I saw every day, the cemetery, the Towson Mall and where I lived.{Disregard some of Jamison's comments on the video...please!}. This is a neat video to always have to remember where I have been and what I saw during this summer.

My Summer Loves..

My list of my summer loves...

1. Jamison {duh}

2. Sunshine

3. Travelling

4. Blogging

5. Socializing {with the few people that I see in the day}

6. Glee! {I joined the bandwagon right as the season was ending} and The Bachelorette {shocking, I know!}

7. Daily Exercising {Kind of turned healthy all of a sudden}

8. Reading the Old Testament {Leviticus is boring!}

9. Talking to my mother on the phone. {I really enjoy that!}

10. Scrounging the internet for ideas...hard to find good ones...

11. Working. {Not really my favorite, that is why it is at the bottom of the list.}

Although this seems to be an impressive list I feel like something is missing. I need something else to do, between all of these activities I just eat. Which according to my list there is a lot of time to eat! {Kind of a problem}. 

I want/need a hobby that won't cost me so much money and my waist line! Shopping isn't a hobby, and I have this new interest in making food from recipes...which is another problem. {I know I'm skinny, but when sitting on my butt ALL day long I need to be careful with what I eat...especially when I am wearing a dress in the nearby future.} So if anyone has any suggestions, I would love for something to do!

Storms Like Never Before...

Before I came to Baltimore I thought I understood and knew the definition of what a thunderstorm was through my experiences of living in Utah. The Utah thunderstorm definition being: 'Crack of lightning and the roar of thunder every 15 minutes with a sprinkle of rain here and there'.  Since living in Maryland, I have now come to a quick understanding that Utah thunderstorms are weak compared to the severe thunderstorms you get out in the plains/east coast.  Definition of Baltimore thunderstorm: 'fabulous light show with great surround sound for hours of entertainment, caught without an umbrella? Sucks to be you'.

Out here you can watch the storms build up and expand for as far as the eye can see, even cooler you can watch the lightning stikes and hear the thunder coming for hours. Although the daytime storms are cool, the storms are even better at night only because it is as a light show from each lightning stike that lights up the black clouds.

As the storm approaches, the light becomes more distinct and the thunder sounds like a gun shot depending on how close the lightning struck. When it rains out here, it pours for hours at a time! Rain in Utah is a sight less seen and takes only several minutes before it's over. Here I feel like it never ends and depending on the storm you get good sized hail will come from the sky! 

I have never experienced anything like this before, the first couple of storms we had out here {which it happens to rain at least once a week} have amazed me because I didn't know these storms were possible!

Jeez, was I naive!

*I didn't take these pictures, Google did an amazing job for me so I borrowed them. There was no intentions of stealing, promise!*

Sunday Destination: Arlington National Cemetery

Because Hudson, Jamison and I work Monday through Saturday from early afternoon to late evening we are unable to sight see the amazing places surrounding Baltimore during the weekdays. So when I have some spare time in the office I plan out our Sunday destinations! Because our only available days are on Sundays it has been difficult because we want to spend money on food/souveniers etc. So to compensate, we try and spend our time in the local free places and do our sight seeing that way in attempts of keeping the Sabbath day holy.

Our very first Sunday destination was at the Arlington National Cemetery. This is an enormous cemetery with acres and acres of land that holds the bodies of those who served our country and died in battle.

Although incredible does not seem to be the appropriate term, it is a very incredible and humbling experience to be able to walk through such hallowed grounds. For every tombstone, I see a family who suffered from the loss of a loved one. This same individual died for our country, for me, so I could have the freedom that I enjoy each and every day. It is truly a humbling experience to have been able to be here.

Also included in the Arlington National Cemetery is where President John F. Kennedy is buried along with his wife and children. This man died serving our country in a whole other way, he gave hope, and gave an incredible speech where he told the world that the United States was going to land on the moon. How I wish I could have been alive to hear that in person!

Also in the Arlington National Cemetery there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, that included in the name, represents those who died that we couldn't identify their remains.

At this tomb it happens to be guarded 24 hours a day, regardless if it is raining or stifling hot. We happened to get there as they were doing the 'Changing of the Guard'.

I battled the idea of expressing how I really felt about the 'Changing of the Guard' because I don't want to be judged by the feelings I felt for it and what I experienced. {But then I realized this is my blog where I can say whatever I feel, which happens to be a freedom I enjoy, and I'm going to share my thoughts anyways!}. With these thoughts I say this out of respect and in reverence for those who died for my sake. I feel like the 'Changing of the Guard' was a presentation/show for those who visited the cemetery. The soldiers on guard appeared as if this was a job, or a mundane task, that was needed to be performed every 15 minutes. While walking through the cemetery I realized that we can get so caught up with every day routines that we forget those individuals who sacrifice the most for us each and every day. It made me sad to see that even standing in front of the tomb that the spectators were watching the 'show' and not fully understanding the importance of why the tomb is being guarded each and every day.

I hope that from my own experience this last Sunday that I may never forget and remember those who sacrificed so much for each of us. What a humbling experience.

Late Night BBQs.

You know it is officially summer when you start having BBQs with friends and family! {Family being Hudson of course....} 

On Sunday nights there are a lot of us from work that get together at the Terrace where we live and sit around the fire after cooking our food to just eat, relax, and talk around the fire. It really is a lot of fun!

This is the very lovely crew who joins us every Sunday for our BBQs. This picture was taken right before we started to eat Smores! Yum! Sunday evenings are so much fun when you have something to do....even if it is just relaxing and talking with some new friends.

Flying Time.

Wow. I have been busy.

{Finals, R.A, School Projects, Packing, Moving}

You got it. Moving.

I'm finally in Maryland!

It only took 3 days to finally get here, good ole 32 hours of driving...not including a major detour through West Virginia. {more scoop on that later!}

I just wanted to make a post letting you know that I am still alive. It was just too hard to find the time and energy to write anything. But now that I am in Maryland, I get to blog about all my new adventures here with both my older brother Hudson and Jamison!

Forget the Snow...Bring on the Sunshine!

I know, I know. I told you earlier in another blog entry that until the sunshine and warmth came that I was going to enjoy all the snow I could get...well forget that!

Mother Nature is flirting with us and I don't like it! "Let's have a 65 degree weather day and by the end of the evening have a blizzard with at least 6" of snow left on the ground." Har Har Mother Nature. It's driving me insane.

I am ready for the sun and the summer heat! {If you couldn't tell by my new bulletin board I made for my floor}

*Credit given to Kaylie and Sam for helping me make this amazing bulletin board. Thanks guys! Oh, and to Jamison for putting it up! :)

Softball. Good times.

It is 'that' time of year again.

Softball season.

Cierra and Paige for the last 5 years have been playing for the Timpanogos High School Softball team and every year we have been able to go to St. George and watch the Varsity team play in a tournament. I love watching them play! {especially now that they are actually good and can make contact with the ball}. It has been so much fun to watch the girls grow and become more experienced in their softball playing skills.

Being my Spring Break this last week, I was able to watch 7 games within 5 days! Their poor team by the end of the week was so exhausted that they were making silly errors to a team that they should have smashed for the third time this week.

What made this week even better?

Spring is on its way!

Even better? Summer! {I am still not counting but...40 more days until Maryland!}

The only problem now is that I have experienced the heat, it needs to keep coming! It was beautiful in St. George! By just sitting outside for the entire weekend I now have a pretty ridiculous sun tan, and yet it makes me so happy!

I love the sun!

Maryland? Let's go!

I am a little excited for this summer...actually I am estatic! {just only a little bit though...} I'm getting out of Utah and am going to Maryland for work!

Work, it sounds like...fun right? Well, not really but I am going to be out of the state of Utah with both my brother and even better my boyfriend. That's right, Jamison is going with me! {He's going to be a technician}

Hudson came home one day and offered me a position to work for him at AMP Security to be his Office Assistant. I couldn't resist such a great opportunity to earn money! {It solves the problem of looking for a job in Utah County and convincing employers to hire me for 3 months AND being 200 miles away from Jamison!}

I don't know how much outside of the office I will be seeing of Maryland, but it can make for some fun road trips on Sunday's to locations such as Philadelphia, New York...you know nothing big!

Hopefully I'm not too busy to spend some time on the beach! {And this is a real picture of a beach in Baltimore}

I'm not counting down or anything {but I do only have 58 days left here!}

Summer....get here faster!