Becoming Bold

Do you ever wonder what it would take to change? I've been wondering this a lot lately. In my last post I talked about being myself. That's not so difficult. It requires a lot less effort to be my dorky self than it does to try and be cool all of the time. But no, this time I'm talking about an actual change. Changing a part of my personality that I'm not so thrilled with. What character trait could this be you ask? I tend to be timid. Now some of you just laughed out loud. Of course if you're one of my good friends, you don't see my timid side. (Or if you met me at school, since it's easier to change when no one knows you). But here at home, being bold with the people I've grown up with is kind of a problem.

When I was in elementary school I was far more bold. Even in Junior High it was fairly easy for me to stand out. But over the past few years I've been far more content to fade into the background. I'm not really willing to reach out and grab the things that I want. I'm self conscious and nervous about how I appear to others. This is what I want to change. I want to be comfortable with myself and more adventurous. I want to be willing to take a risk in order to get the things that I want. So this is what I'm going to work on right now. I'm changing myself and not allowing myself to be a recluse. I will never get anywhere that way! So everyone wish me luck and you can stop snickering at me. I have recently learned that people see me as a confident person that is not really shy or afraid of reaching out for what I want... well that is completely false. So no laughing at my expense. I just let you all in on a little secret about me so be so grateful!

Who's That Girl? It's Claire!

Alright so I recently watched the pilot episode to the show New Girl. And can I just rant and rave about how amazing it is? It's funny and clever and the humor actually made me laugh out loud. I don't laugh out loud while watching television. But I was rolling. I even paused it a few times to get my giggles out. Now a quick disclaimer, I relate to this show more than most so that's probably why I laughed so hard.

That being said, the show is about a girl named Jess who gets dumped. So she finds an apartment on Craig's list and ends up moving in with three guys. How does this relate to me you ask? Well Jess is a dork. She is random and silly. She loves singing to herself and even has a theme song. She makes a Lord of the Rings reference that made me die laughing and she's just great. Another thing, not every gets to see my absolutely dorky side. Generally I'm great at hiding the song I'm constantly writing in my head. And I try to be serious and make people think I'm normal. But let's be honest... the girl who sits in the back of class and sings a song about drawing Noah's Arc, without realizing she's doing it, is definetly classified as a dork. And I've decided to quit hiding my dorkiness. Because I personally feel as if it's fantastic. And it's slowly creeping out in the open anyway so I may as well just let my freak flag fly!

Just watch it. Trust me you will love it!!! And if not I don't want to hear about it? Mmmk? Thanks!

Summer Time Blues

So this summer has been fantastic! The time I've had with my family and friends is something I would never give up. I've been lucky enough to have a bunch of friends return from their missions and it's been great getting to know them again. I've spent the most time with Race! He's awesome and dang if I didn't miss that kid!
I am also sooo excited... Tyson got home on Monday! I've seen him a couple times but haven't got any really good hang out but it'll happen right? I love that kid and I'm not looking forward to him going to school in a week and leaving me... again :( But that's the way life works right?
So this weekend is the birthday of my most favorite baby in the whole wide world! One year ago today, at this time I was in Show Low with Devanie while she waited to have her baby. About 16 hours later I was blessed to meet the one and only Carter Lee Tate. Since then that boy has come to be the light of my life. I love him sooooo much! And I can't believe he's going to be one! So Happy Birthday to my Baby Carter Bug!

Wallow Fire Aftermath

Just a few pictures I took up Big Lake Road. I have about a hundred others.

Fire, Rain, and other exciting news...

Well as most everyone knows, we've recently had a fire. The Wallow fire... Unfortunately this fire has done everything but "wallow". It has burned near 500,000 acres and came close to town. We were able to evacuate and nothing in town was harmed. But it was interesting. We didn't see my Dad for more than 5 minutes a day (if we saw him at all) and we were breathing in smoke like it was the most natural thing in the world. Now our mountains are burned up and black. There are spots where the green remains but the vast majority of it is black in one way or another. My dad said that everything we know about our mountain is forever changed. It breaks my heart. But luckily the firefighters worked their tails off so the damage was minimal to residences and towns. I've never been so grateful for firefighters in my life. They don't get nearly enough recognition for all of the hard work they do. So this is my sincere thank you.

Now we're playing the waiting game to see what the rain will bring. It's been sprinkling off and on today but when the monsoons hit, they have us prepared for mass flooding. Isn't it ironic that one month you're afraid your home will burn to the ground and the next you have to worry about it washing away? Natural disasters are just not fun! But we are definitely praying for rain! The fire won't stop smoldering until we get a good rain in so keep us in your prayers, and thank you for all of the prayers said for us thus far.

This weekend is the long awaited 4th of July! I can't wait! It is my favorite holiday and I'm hoping it will bring some semblance of normalcy back into our lives. My friend Juelaine is coming to stay with us and she's afraid I'm going to convert her to "Village Life" by making her swim in Lyman and sleep on the porch... she will also have to attend various family gatherings... Ha it'll be interesting! In other news... Shilee graduated! Go Shorty! I'm so proud of her. And she will be going to EA come August. She's excited but my Mom is not! Race Davis gets home this weekend too! I can't wait to see him! Katie, Sydney, and I have a trip planned to see the final Harry Potter movie with him on the 14th. He'll be so excited... or he will pretend! :) Baby Carter is going to be one soon and that is just crazy to me! I love that little boy but I can't believe that a year ago we were waiting for him to get here! My favorite person in the whole world, Tyson Nicoll, gets home in about a month and I'm excited to have him back home. I've missed our mac & Cheese movie nights, and milk shakes, and watching scary movies, and just all of the random things we used to do. So it’ll be nice to see him for a while before he goes to school. Basically that's what's been going on in the village lately! Hopefully I'll get up on the mountain and get pictures of the Havoc for those of you who don't get to see it daily....

Bring on the Sunshine!

Summer time is just around the corner and I am so excited! I'm back at home and watching Ashton and Mark's little boy, Trey. He is adorable and generally very happy! We've had some rought days without any sleep and lots of screaming but I love it! I get to spend more time with my family and I actually know when I'm going to work.
I also get to spend a lot of time with my Grandma, Devanie and Carter. I love them so much! And can I just say that Carter is the light of my life! He always makes me happy and is the sweetest kid ever! I'm going to miss him soooo much when I go back to school.
I'm already excited for the Fourth of July! My friend Juelaine is coming and since she is the only reason I survived my last semester of school I can't wait to see her! She's the greatest! But on top of that, my friend Tess is thinking about coming too! I really hope she does because it's been over a year since I last saw her and I miss her so much! I'm really hoping they both make it down since they are both city girls and have never experienced a Round Valley 4th!
I also can't wait until June! A few friends are coming home from their missions and I can't wait to see them! Especially Race! Katie and I had an entire night dedicated to missing Race. It was absolutely fantastic! And I'm hoping he'll come watch the Last Harry Potter movie with me, since him and I started this Harry Potter fascination together, I feel as if we should end it together! So keep your fingers crossed for that one! And on top of that, Tyson gets home in July! I can't explain how excited I am for that one! These past two years without my best friend have been miserable!
So in general that's life up to this point! But there will definately be updates later!

General Conference Girl Drama

So on Saturday I was perfectly content sleeping in my bed, loving my Nyquil induced coma. For starters everyone should know that when I take Nyquil it knocks me out for hours and nothing wakes me up. Alright back to the story, I was sleeping and suddenly I hear yelling from downstairs. I woke up thinking that maybe the television was up really loud again (this roommate always has it up way loud). But then I hear Jaime's voice yelling too! I hear Jaime say "I'm just going to the room to watch conference!" and then the other roommate yells "Don't bother I'm leaving!" So she stomped upstairs and started packing and then the yelling started again! Basically the other roommate was yelling at Jaime about how all young adults are selfish and don't care about anyone else. Then yelled about how she's going through hell and she is so mad at us for not caring and how we didn't even try to get to know her and all kinds of crap! It was ridiculous and I was sitting in my room trying not to laugh. Because it was so bogus! The yelling just kept going and going and the other roommate finally packed up all of her stuff and moved out! Which isn't too horrible since we were all stressed and having problems and for some reason she just seems to bring it out. But after that it was great! We all bonded and watched conference at 406. Then we went to a bonfire with Jaime's friends from Alaska (we decided it would be funny to torture Scott by having me go). It was hilarious! It was basically a great weekend! I've gotten my pointless homework done that is going to get me no where in life. And I'm getting ready to get everything packed and cleaned and get the hell out of here! So keep your fingers crossed that this all goes well and I survive finals week!