Spring

Thanks for getting here, Spring. I thought you'd never come.

Falling Together

I'm a Pinterest fanatic. I'm constantly scrolling through pictures of food, clothes, movies, crafts, quotes...everything! I love it. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there with this addiction. Am I right? I'm right.

My favorite boards to look at on Pinterest are those filled with quotes and sayings. I don't know why but I can't stop reading through them. There's one quote by Marilyn Monroe that I constantly see repinned. It says, "Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together." I never liked it. I honestly thought of it as one of those quotes people say to make themselves feel better about the unhappy events in their lives. I never thought of it as being true or uplifting in any way.

Then, I took a little road trip with my mom down to Utah. On the way back to Idaho, the iPod quit working. Uh oh. If there's no music, it's silent because we don't talk in the car. It's true. It's weird. It's just how things are, okay? Anyway, as you can imagine, it left a lot of time for thinking. I'm not sure why, but that quote about better things falling together came into my head. I started to understand it. Sometimes things just aren't meant to work out and it's confusing in the moment but it leads to better opportunities.

I can think of a few times over the past couple of months that I've been crazily disappointed with how some things ended up working out. The weird thing was, I remember that I wasn't mad or upset. There was a feeling of disappointment but, at the same time, I felt calm and just accepted that I had no control over whatever happened. I remember thinking it was weird how calm I felt. As I thought of my life in the present, I realized that many of the good things that have happened, or are happening, wouldn't be going on had those disappointing moments not occurred.

I must say, I'm now a fan of Ms. Marilyn's quote. I understand it. Sometimes things do fall apart and plans fall through. Sometimes you don't get what you think you deserve and sometimes it feels like everything is working against you. It's not. You just need to stick around and see what life has in store for you. I bet some great things are lining up : )

Holland!

This weekend, my mom and I went on a trip..to Holland! We started our day at 1 in the morning. Well...my mom started her day at 1 in the morning. I just never went to bed. It took seven hours to get to the place where we had breakfast. It was a small cheese farm called Clara Maria's. They served us bread, eggs and cheese all from their farm. After eating, we watched two demonstrations. The first was on how to make cheese, which was pretty smelly but SO good. Also, I don't know why but the song "Thrift Shop" was stuck in my head all day. The lady giving the demonstration told us how much the cheese sells for and all I could think was "but I only got 20 dollahs in my pockeeet." Nice, right? The second was on how to make wooden shoes. The guy teaching us was so funny. He asked the group to guess what kind of wood is used to make wooden shoes. He gave us a hint saying that the name of the tree started with a 'P'. Someone in the group yelled out, "Oak!" The guy just looks at the group and says, "Yeah, oak...Americans," and shakes his head laughing. There was time to shop afterwards and we bought seven cheeses! Seven! I normally don't like cheese (unless it's on pizza) but this was soo good! It's gouda & goudas my favorite. Name that movie!

After Clara Maria's, the group headed to the Keukenhof Gardens. It really is a nice little park. It would have been even better if all the flowers had bloomed before we got there but it was still a nice place. There were waterfalls, windmills and waffels. Yes, waffles. I love waffles. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures on this trip and I thought I'd post a few (or a bit more than a few). Enjoy!

The Beginning of Something Great

Do you ever have those moments where you see something amazing and think, "Man, I wish I had my camera!" and you get this feeling of regret in your stomach for having forgotten it? Like you're forever leaving something behind that you'll never get to see or experience again and you're scared you'll forget it? No? Lucky.

Yesterday, after going to check on Amanda's cat (because they decided to venture off to Italy, whatever), we drove around their town. We passed by one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen. I had one of those moments I mentioned above. I wanted to take a picture of this church so badly. I told my mom that I could not forget my camera the next time we went to Amanda's village. Well, guess what. Today, I did not forget my camera and I was able to get the picture! I think I might make it a point to bring my camera with me even on my little trips around town. Hey, this could be the beginning of something great.