Story Time

For those of you who haven't heard my story... I figured, ah what the heck, why not?

A few Thursdays ago I woke up exhausted. 

Not too surprising. I'm sure many people wake up that way. I usually do pretty well on only about six hours of sleep but that particular morning a felt like I was living in a fog. It was like a heavy weight was pulling my eyelids down. I knew I would have a long day. I was working 5 hours at the bank and babysitting for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I just kept thinking "I can't do today."

*secret from Emily's present - I sometimes fall asleep in the shower*

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't really know how to explain that one. hahaha. But on that morning I had leaned my head against the wall as the words "I can't do today" kept replaying over and over. 

I startled awake and panicked. 

I knew I was going to be late for work. I can't stand being late, so I jumped out of the shower and grabbed my phone to see how many precious minutes had been wasted. I had to look at it three times before I comprehended what had happened.

It read 12:51

Yep. It was midnight. I had been asleep for a total of about 85 minutes before I somehow sleepwalked to the shower and started getting ready for my day. I had even picked out a cute outfit and everything! 

There was not a better feeling than getting back into bed and knowing I had the full night left to sleep! I'm pretty sure I fell asleep grinning from ear to ear. 

This has been story time with Emily :) Tune in next time to hear more odd stories!

Feeling Old

I know, it is a little early to have that be my post title, I've only been 19 for two weeks! But I really do feel old! Today was the first time I got excited about Christmas this year, up to this point all my thoughts about the upcoming holidays have been negative. (I know you're probably thinking that I should do a Thanksgiving post first and not skip ahead to the next holiday so fast. Don't worry, I'm not a superstore. I didn't forget about Thanksgiving.) But I've been dwelling heavily in the worry of how to get everything done before the holidays. The hours I need to clock at work, the books I need to get for school, not to mention Christmas shopping and how much I can't stand the nasty weather!

Tonight while eating dinner Ben was blaring his Michael Bubble (it is what I call him, ok) Christmas CD and it was driving me crazy. Yeah, I know, a teenage girl who doesn't listen to that one album 10981267 times in the four weeks before Christmas. Crazy right? Anyways, in order to clear that nonsense from my head I decided it was about time to create a Christmas playlist of my own (I'm not saying that my music is better...but, well I mean...)

I starting washing dishes and Amy Grant's 'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing' came on. For about three minutes I was eight years old again, waking up to that song playing in the living room of our house in Williamston and running downstairs on a white, snowy, magical morning. There was such an awe of Christmas back then. Every year as a little kid I put together a complex nativity scene using as many things as I could find laying around our house. My favorite, and probably my most advanced one included doll house people as Mary and Joseph, a Playmobile baby Jesus, Ben's Obi-Wan guy as the shepherd, and a few other assorted toys. I was quite proud. Eventually, I switched from setting up the miniature scene to writing the Christmas story in a different way each year. Those got pretty advanced too before I switched to being the tree decorating advisor.

*secret from my past: I used to ball my eyes out while watching the tree go through the chopper truck a week after Christmas*

Then we got a fake tree. And I knew I would much rather have to watch my beloved, unique, and always gigantic real tree leave in a violent way than see the same plastic one year after year come out of the box (my annual fake-Christmas-tree-rant gets shorter every year... there is hope that I am becoming more mature right?)

With my hands still in the soapy sink I snapped out of it and realized that somewhere along the line the childhood excitement had switched to a feeling of just tradition which I realized had switched to a feeling of dread. I dread Christmas? Third Day's 'Christmas Like a Child' hit at a good time.
As a kid I was caught up in the true meaning of Christmas and the magic of the season. I wasn't too busy, or overwhelmed, or lost in all the hustle and bustle of "adultness". I want to enjoy Christmas like that again!

In other news, there is really nothing super new going on around here. I got a turkey today for working at the bank. AND IT WAS TOTALLY EPIC! Im so very proud of earning a 14lb headless and very frozen bird! Ben thinks I've gone insane. haha... I am really enjoying the slow and steady flow of photography session that have been coming in too and can't wait for a session that I have tomorrow!

So yeah, let's feel Christmas like children again! It was way more fun and enjoyable and meaningful back then. Don't forget the reason we celebrate in the first place. The little multi-toy nativity might look and sound funny now, but back then I set it up to remind me just how real it was! I don't ever want to lose that truth and joy - no matter how crazy busy life gets.

I just noticed that this post is very Emily's brain. Haha, I apologize for how all over the place it is :P Lots of parenthesis, oh dear. Well, I guess it is realistic!

And now two random pictures from our birthday (just to add to the randomness, and parenthesis).

 

Final conclusion. Samantha is a beast. I am a wimp.

adios for now :)