Goodbyes and Hellos

I have decided that I'm really sick and tired of goodbyes.  This is not a new discovery; I've just been renewing it over and over again, and recently I've gotten a particularly large dose of goodbyes.  Ugh.  But I've also gotten some hellos--both seeing familiar faces and meeting new people.

Goodbye

Moving back home to live with my family over the summer means I had to say goodbye to all of my friends in Provo.  I miss the people in my ward and my friends from school.  I especially miss my three roommates--Holly, Karrie, and Allie--and my five good friends in my major--Liz, Devyn, Rylee, Heather, and Kara.  I'm keeping my records in my Provo ward, so I will get to see many of my friends at least every Sunday, but many of them have left too, and even for those who are staying, it's just not the same as being there with them all the time.

Hellos

I get to live with my family again!  I know many people my age say they would rather die than move back in with their family, even though they love them.  But I still love being with my family and look forward to every opportunity to see them.  And, miraculously, they love to see me too.  Kaylee, of course, makes her views quite easily known with her constant baby-talk cries of "I wuv Arielle!"  My parents are obviously excited as well.  But what amazes me is the fact that even my brothers love having me around, even though Garrett is at the stage where it's not cool to overtly show that he actually likes his older sister.  :)

I started working at the same day care where I worked last summer, and I love it!  Most of the three-year-olds I'm working with nowadays were at the day care last summer, which means I worked with them while they were two, and now they're in my class.  And what's even better is that many of them still remember me!  I have loved being able to play with my favorite kids from last summer and meet some new ones.  And I've loved being reunited with many of the teachers who were there last summer as well.  I love my job!

For the past few months, each ward in my family's stake have practiced and practiced in order to participate in a ten-minute roadshow.  The theme for the roadshows was "Put your shoulder to the ______."  Half of the wards performed their roadshows on Wednesday, and the other half of them performed theirs yesterday.  My sister participated in my family's ward's roadshow, whose theme was "Put your shoulder to the wheelchair."  It was a collision of old fogey flashbacks and young geek gadgets!  :)  Though I'm not technically part of the singles' ward that was, until recently part of my family's stake, I was invited to participate in their roadshow because I've been in their ward before.  As I hadn't been to any of the practices, I simply stood off-stage and helped boost the chorus's numbers by singing from the sidelines.  The singles' ward's theme was "Put your shoulder to the 'Deal or No Deal: Dating Edition'."  Watching an eligible bachelor go on dates with Yzma, Dory, and Belle, I have concluded that one should always choose the right (i.e., don't drink anything Yzma offers you and don't go with Dory and Bruce to a party where they watch a rated "R" movie) and that it's a very bad idea to serve sushi if you go on a date with Dory!  :)  The best part of all of this was, of course, being able to see my friends in the singles' ward.  I loved being able to interact with them, and they were happy to see me too.

Goodbye

Unfortunately, the hello of last night had a goodbye to go along with it.  As of Wednesday night, all of the singles' wards in the Salt Lake Valley have been dissolved, and 12 new singles' stakes have been formed.  Many of the people who were in the former singles' ward of my family's stake are going to be in different wards, and even different stakes, under the new boundaries.  This means that last night was the last event in which members of the River Park Ward could participate together as a ward.  Now it's over, and we must all go our separate ways.  I hope that, since we all still live in the same places, we will still be able to see each other, but like I said earlier, it just won't be the same.  That goodbye was hard enough in and of itself, but it also brought back to the surface the emotions I felt when saying goodbye to my Provo friends.  Too many goodbyes.

Hello

I had another hello today, which made me super happy and helped to alleviate a bit of my sadness from last night.  This morning, my younger siblings and I went to the Jordan River Temple for the usual Friday morning temple trip.  Colton and I started the tradition of going to the temple Friday mornings back in 2005.  Each of the younger kids joined in as soon as they turned 12.  Since then, I obviously haven't gone to the Jordan River Temple regularly because I've been in Provo and have therefore gone to the Provo Temple, and Colton has stopped doing baptisms because he has been working as a temple worker.  But the younger kids have continued the tradition, and I have always loved to go with them when I've been home for holidays or over the summer.  This morning was my first time going to the Jordan River Temple in several months.  It was so fun to see the temple workers again!  Remember, temple workers work on the same day and time each week, so all of the Friday morning temple workers know our family.  Over the years, we've had many temple workers leave and others take their place, but there are some that were there the first time Colton and I went and are still there, and they're always so happy to see us all.  They were all excited to hear about how my year at college went and how much school I have left.  It's always fun to see familiar faces and to see them so obviously pleased to see you.  :)

Change is hard, even when I know it's for the best.  But I'm glad not all of my recent changes had to be goodbyes.  And now I think I'm done with goodbyes for a while, which means there are only going to be hellos in the forseeable future.  I can't wait!