This is my last post of the countdown but there are still SO MANY things I have not touched on. But here are a few more things I am super grateful for in the last 20 years....
Sister-in-Laws: I loved growing up with my four brothers, but it is definitely nice to have some girls in my life. Both my immediate and extended family is really scarce in the girl department. So I was super happy in the last two years to have two sister-in-laws added to my family! They both bring new and great things to the Skidmore family and it has been so great to get to know them and to actually have sisters!
Jet- She joined our family in November 2008 and I remember hitting it off with her from the very beginning. The first night I met her when she came to meet our family Brad, Jet, and I all stayed up late talking together and I remember thinking that I was so glad to find I was not losing Brad to someone at all, but instead gaining a new sister. I have had the chance to live with Brad and Jet for a month on two separate occasions and I have many good memories of those times. Jet and I can talk for hours about all kinds of things. I still enjoy being able to talk to her on a regular basis while I am in a different state and I miss her, Brad, and Hyrum a lot!
Kristen- She joined our family in August 2009 and I got a second sister! I remember the first time I met Kristen as well when our family came up to Provo to visit and she was very easy to talk to and get to know. And then later in the year when she came down to New Mexico with Greg for my high school graduation and other family events I remember thinking how well she fit in to our family and that no one seemed to be acting any differently with her there. Kristen is a lot of fun with a great sense of humor and is also very kind and good at reaching out to people around her. I really miss having her and Greg here in Provo and getting to visit them whenever I want!
FRIENDS: It has really struck me this summer and school year how many amazing friends I have been blessed with. Friendship is such a beautiful gift that can be found in any circumstances and I have been so blessed to have found friends in so many different contexts and that I have always had people with whom to laugh, swap stories, make memories, and really care about and be cared for. I could say so much about each of them, but for now I will just have to share a piece of it through pictures:
Some more things I am grateful for in the last twenty years of my life...
Happiness- What would life be like without laughter, smiles, and those perfect happy moments? I can't even imagine. I am so grateful for the happiness of those around me, the people and things that make me happy, a heartwarming smile, and laughter... lots and lots of laughter! I have written school papers, church talks, blog posts and more about the value of happiness and the role that it can play in your life and I am sure there will be many more. There is nothing greater in life than happiness and those things that cause it.
-A GOOD CHILDHOOD- Looking back on my years of happiness and innocence growing up and having heard about the experiences of so many others that was not like mine, I have seen how truly blessed I have been. Everything was not perfect of course but I was definitely provided with a safe and loving environment that helped me develop and learn effectively. I was able to begin life's journeys and face new trials without the burdening down of damaging childhood experiences. Most of this is due to my parents and there is a lot I could say just about them, but I wrote about parenting in my blog a couple months ago so for now I will just say that I am extremely grateful for the environment that my parents raised in and for the example and guidance that they have offered me.
~Beauty~ "Some people in this world have stopped looking for beauty, then wonder why their lives are so ugly. Don't be like them. The ability to appreciate beauty is of God. Especially in one another. Look for beauty in everyone you meet and you'll find it. Everyone carries divinity with them. And everyone we meet has something to impart." -from The Walk by Richard Paul Evans
There has been so much beauty in my life through so many different aspects and I would feel ungrateful not to recognize it. I love the idea that this quote presents because there really is beauty in everything and everyone. There are the miracles of nature all around and the beauty in the smiles and spirits of everyone we encounter. Just a few of the innumerable beautiful things in my life...
I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am and how many things have 'gone right' for me(which is really easy to forget when a couple things go wrong). And with my birthday in less than a week I have been reflecting a lot on the last two decades(yes, I have been alive that long now-crazy!) and the many blessings that have scattered throughout. I have SO MUCH to be grateful for, and so over this week before my birthday I want to give focus to some of the many things that have made my life the great one that it is...
*My Brothers* Yes I did always long for a sister growing up, but I never would have replaced any of my amazing brothers. I had a lot of fun and good times growing up with them and over the last couple years I have gotten even closer to all of them. As I moved out to college and went through more life experiences I grew in my relationship with my older brothers in many ways. I love each one of them so much and treasure my relationship and interactions with each of them.
-Wes- there is always a guarantee of a good time and lots of laughs with Wes! We really stretched our imagination with the many games we played as a kid. Who else would build huge Lego towns/Hogwarts, play restaurant when we wanted lunch, play with both Barbies and Star Wars action figures, build forts, and be so closely matched to me in Harry Potter Scene-it that a wrestling match was added to the end of intense game? And he can still be counted on for many laughs and competition in ANY sport.
JEFF.... Ever since he got back from his mission over a year ago I have been able to get to know Jeff and grow in our relationship more than ever before. The last two school years we have lived in the same apartment complex and it is awesome to have him so close by. We have a ton of laughs and some heart to hearts too. It is fun to have some of the same friends and be able to do many different things together. We have found that we can be complimentary in several ways... he helps me with homework I don't understand and gives me rides and I help him figure out people and relationships and cook for him. I can and have learned a lot from his example and greatly enjoy all the time we have spent together.
~Greg~ Growing up we were the two black sheep of the family together. We have always had more in common than everyone else in the family. Greg has also had a special talent to make me laugh and I have many memories of laughing at the things he has said. He is definitely one of the funniest people I know. But he is also extremely kind and wise. I enjoy the serious conversations I have had with Greg and he has a lot of wisdom and insight. It was great to have him living so close by when I moved out to college and to get to know him on a new level. I have a lot of friends that are surprised to learn that I talk to my brothers about boys and about personal things because they cannot do the same with their brothers, but Greg is a great example of this. He is always one of the first people I tell about guys or about other important things in my life. I have loved seeing him go through the process of marrying Kristen and starting a life with her. He is great and I am so grateful for all he has done!
BRAD-- Brad is someone that I have always been close to and has always been one of my best friends. I can talk to him for hours about anything and I have especially loved the deep conversations we get in to. I feel like he brings out the best in me and he is always interested in what I have to say. He is unceasingly supportive and always there for me. Whether we were living just a couple minutes from each other or in different states, we have always been able to maintain our close relationship. I saw him through the process of finding someone to marry and I am so happy to see him with the beautiful family he now has. That's all for tonight... more to come soon!
I love to read and I have ever since I was a little kid. I remember my Mom teaching me to read before I had even started school. I remember going to Kindergarten and that reading books was one of my favorite parts, and then coming home afterward and reading more with my mom. My love of reading has remained and continued to grow through the years, and I am very convinced that it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I have noticed that my passion for reading has come in waves over the years. I have always liked reading, but there are certain times in my life that it has been more prominent than others. And my reasons for reading has changed some through time as well.
In Elementary School I read because I loved the stories and loved to be a part of them. I had a huge imagination as a kid and would play make-believe stories all the time. Reading probably made that grow even more. I would make up my own stories in the games I was playing by myself, with characters and their relationships and a storyline that I acted out. And when I was old enough, I would even write out the stories I came up with. The library was one of my favorite places to go as a kid and I always participated in their summer reading programs. Many happy hours of my childhood were spent reading.
Cute, right? The only problem is, I recognize this book and I am pretty sure it is the How Babies are Made book. So maybe not the best example... haha
The beginning of seventh grade is when I really discovered Harry Potter and I was completely hooked. I will talk more about Harry Potter later, but discovering this series made me hungry for more books and I continued reading all through middle school. I remember that I read all the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books during this time too.
At the very beginning of high school I don't think I was reading very much, but then one day I was looking through a Desert Book magazine when I came across a LDS romance book that really caught my attention. I bought it, read it, and LOVED it. Ever since then I was hooked on romances. I had known for a long time that I had a sweet spot for a good love story, but I didn't realize that there was a whole category of books that were romances...and that there was a whole collection of clean, uplifting romances at stores like Desert Book. What followed was a very long wave of my passion for reading and especially romances, that has never really subsided. My sophomore year of High School is the year that I read all the time. Seriously, all the time. That year was a really hard year for me with friends, boys, etc and so I think reading definitely became my escape. I read for entertainment, I read to, in a way, 'meet people' through the characters, and experience new places. I learned so much about people and life from reading so much, but I also know looking back that I was living life on the sidelines. I was reading about life and learning a lot from that, but I was not getting first hand experience.
Wes and I shared a love of reading and most days I could be found to be reading in various spots like this one.
Later in High School as I regained a lot of the confidence I had lost through a difficult year, I spent a lot more time with friends and doing other things. Reading was not consuming my life quite as much and while it was definitely still ever present in my life, it was not as much for an escape and I was not as reliant on it. As I took an AP Psychology class and was really starting to discover my interest in people and relationships and discovering that it was what I wanted to do with my future, I began to realize other reasons of why I loved reading so much. At the end of my senior year I wrote an essay for a local library scholarship in which I was supposed to write about a book that had influenced my life. I wrote about one of Richard Paul Evans'(who is one of my favorite authors whom I will talking about again later) books and some of the quotes from it that have really influenced me. When I was talking about the quote that is written at the top right corner of my blog and that inspired this blog's name, I said the following:
I have a sincere and genuine interest in the lives and feelings of other people.It fascinates me that each person has their own individual and unique story that is unlike any other.My love of coming to understand the lives of others, with their joys and struggles, is one of the main reasons that I love to read novels.I like to be able to understand how people in a particular situation feel.Novels that give insight into the problems and struggles of various people give me a type of knowledge that I cherish.I use that knowledge to attempt to not judge people by how they appear, but rather see them for who they are beneath their outside appearance.When I understand how others feel and how they view things, I am able to treat them with more respect and develop compassion for them.I try to remember this quote when I am tempted to judge people without really knowing them.
This sums up the reasons I had for my love of reading then and it is definitely still true. When I finished High School I was still reading a lot, but when I went to my first year of college it took a break for a little while. I was experiencing so many new things and enjoying everything around me, and I was afraid that if I got hooked in a book I would get distracted from schoolwork. I remember talking to my dad on the phone one day and he said something about how I wasn't reading very much anymore and that it seemed like I was busy living life now instead of reading about it. I had never told him about what I said above about sophomore year and how it was my escape, but I guess he figured it out on his own. It was not until toward the end of winter semester when I had a lot lighter school load than I thought it would and found a lot of extra time that I started to read a lot again. I was trying to expand the type of books I was reading during that time too and discovered some great books that I wouldn't have otherwise. It was also when I discovered the first two books of the Hunger Games trilogy which I loved and I will talk more about later in this post as well. Then this summer I was able to read a lot too. Not quite as much as I had originally planned on since I was busy having a life as well, but I read during my lunch breaks and at other times and really loved it. I feel like I have reached a pretty good balance of living my life while also reading about life, and I have also figured out how to balance it in my college life. This semester I will definitely still be reading and actually I have already read three books(granted one of them was the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy and so I read in a little over a day). I have found that it is a really good way to fill my half hour bus ride to school and again home from school, and it is also a good break and relaxer when I need to take a break from schoolwork. So as long as I don't get carried away, I think it actually helps me rather than hurting me.
My family has a lot of pictures like this from our various travels...
This blog post originally was just going to be about my favorite books with just a short background at the beginning. But as you can see from above, it didn't end up being so short. Opps. So my favorite books.... First of all let me say that I have read SO MANY books and of those there have been SO MANY that I love, but these are just some of my favorites that always stand out in my mind and hold a special place in my heart.
*Harry Potter- I know there are so many people that agree with me and that this one doesn't need a lot of explaining. I have reread this series many many times, but I got to reread most of them this summer for the first time doing since the last book has been out. Going back to the first book when I already knew the end and the whole story was a really cool experience. I am blown away by how J.K. Rowling had the whole story in her mind and how well she was able to connect and tie everything. Things that were introduced in the first books that seem minor come back in to be important in ways you would never imagine. I also think it is amazing that she successfully created this unique, detailed world that seems like it could be so real.
*The Hunger Games Trilogy- Wow. That's all I can say. I have been talking about this trilogy a lot recently. And that's because it is so amazing!! Seriously, I loved these books. The premise of the story is unique; the characters are so great and so REAL; the distopia she creates is chilling and makes you really think about the world around you and your place in it, as it should; and she captures human nature and human conflict so beautifully. Also, I have to say the love story is great too :).
*The Work and the Glory series- I read this series in High School during the time that I was reading a ton and I loved them!! I love the author Gerald Lund and have read almost all of his other books as well. I loved this series for many different reasons. They gave me a much greater appreciation for the events in LDS church history as well as a much more personal perspective. I have always heard about the events that happened, but when the characters in the story--characters that you have come to know and love like friends--are facing those events it becomes so much more personal. Another reason I loved these books is because Lund is so talented in understanding and capturing people and their relationships and emotions. Seeing the Steed family through time and trials and growing as others joined their family was quite an experience.
*All Richard Paul Evans books: I could easily write a whole blog post about him and all his books, and I think I will sometime. There is SO much to say. But for now I will just say that I love his books and all of the insights into life and relationships that they offer. I have read almost all of his books(there are a lot of them, but the only ones that I haven't read are his very first ones which I intend on going back to read in the near future). I always know that I will like his books, because they are always a story about love. Not necessarily a romance, although many of them are, but about all kinds of love. And his books are always full of so many great quotes. Usually, he begins each chapter with a short journal entry from the main character and they are always so insightful. His stories often compel me to want to make a difference as well. And actually he gives you that opportunity. One of his novels was based around an actual orphanage in Peru and he has donations and projects set up to help and contribute to the orphanage. And there are many other similar things he does. So much of the money from his books goes to helping those he write about and I think it is amazing that he is making a difference both through his words and his money.
*All of Josi Kilpack's books- The part of my essay that I put in here that talks about one reason I love reading definitely applies to why I love Josi Kilpack's books. When it comes to LDS fiction, she is who I love. She writes it like no one else does because she takes real life problems that plague the world today and then thinks about how that problem would be in the life of a member of the LDS faith and writes from that perspective. She had written about prescription drug addiction, infertility, divorce, internet predators, identity theft, abuse, and so much more. I realize that probably sounds like a lot of depressing books, but they are not. She writes about them in a way that helps you to understand the problem, sympathize with and better understand those that face it, and presents a hopeful and realistic solution for the character through the gospel. I love and own all of her books(except for one that I hope to get soon). And currently she has been writing a culinary mystery series that is a lot of fun. As seen in the picture, I got to meet her last April and it was so great!
*Ella Enchanted: This one probably seems a little out of place with the rest of them seeing as it is an easy read from elementary school, but I love this book! I love the main character Ella and I think it is such a great story and sweet love story. I have reread it several times and love it every time that I read it :).
*The Last Song: I have not decided for sure if this one goes on my top favorites list yet, but since finishing this book today is what inspired me to write this blog, I definitely felt like it deserved a spot :). I saw the movie that was based off of this book on Labor Day when I was at Brianne's apartment and really liked it. Brianne and her roommates had all read the book and kept telling me how great it was. So after the movie Brianne told me that I should definitely read the book because it was the kind of book I would like, and I borrowed it from her roommate. I finished it today and she was so right, I loved it! It has a really cute love story which is enough for someone to recommend it to me, but it was more than just the love story. There are so many great stories throughout the whole thing and so many different relationships with interesting dynamics. It is a love story(and a good one!) but it is also a story of family, friends, change, forgiveness, maturity, parenthood, faith, mistakes, truth, life, pain, happiness, God, and so much more. Although there is a main character, there are four different characters from who's point of view the story alternates and I love that aspect as well.
Like I said these are just a few of the many, many books that I love and I am pretty sure that there are many more amazing books to come!
